In December of the year 2020, in the beautiful land of Colorado, lives a fourth grade teacher and her lovely students who are very, very busy preparing for the fast approaching dark days of winter.

    Each year they go about the school community to gather bits of light that shine whenever Malley students or teachers show kindness to one another.  The class collects the light in a great big stocking that is as tall as Ms Fore herself (which is five feet, 6 inches, to be precise), until it is full and overflowing. Then they joyfully

hang the light throughout the school until every hall and classroom shines as bright as the full moon.  It is a very important mission, as it is necessary to survive and learn through the winter months ahead.

    This year is different, though, since the Great Pandemic has kept Ms. Fore and her darling students apart, as it is much too frightful for them to be together in a classroom.  However, with the help of the wise wizard, Zoom, they still gather virtually each day to share in the teaching and learning.  Still, the teacher wonders: 

    “How can we continue to uphold the tradition of gathering the light of kindness in our Malley community so that we may all see through the dark days of winter?” 

 Just the thought of possibly failing in the mission leaves her dismayed.

    The next day, in class with Zoom, the students have an idea: they ask if they can call Santa.  

    “We think that he should collect the lights we gather.”  

    “That is a great idea, friends!” Ms. Fore exclaims.  “But how will we round up evidence of kindness for our lights while we are on Zoom?”

The students reply, 

    “We can recognize each other’s goodness while on Zoom and ask parents to help us by writing down when they see us being gracious.”

    Then Ms. Fore emails our community, and as fast as she can, she asks all Malley Drive families and friends to gather examples of kindness. Almost the whole school says yes.

    The students then call Santa to ask him if the elves can help assemble the lights to create an enormous and super bright candle.  Everyone works together to put the light in the candle with all the acts of kindness! There is so much kindness that there appears to be a billion rays of light glowing within it.  The children smile with pride and excitement!  Now they want to be sure everyone can see the light.  

“We must light the candle and raise it up higher,” one child exclaims.