Dignity Health, Students of the Great Kindness Challenge Complete Record Number of Acts of Kindness

Dignity Health Completes Millions of Kind Acts for the Great Kindness Challenge

SAN FRANCISCO - Feb. 4, 2015 - Dignity Health, one of the largest health systems in the nation, recently helped to encourage the national kindness movement as the presenting sponsor and active participant of the Great Kindness Challenge, completing millions of acts of kindness in one week.

"Kindness is an act of compassion and love, and when you are nice to someone it will make their day and they will be nice to everyone so it can spread," said Lucy, a third grade student at St. Francis Xavier School in Phoenix. "It's contagious."

The 2015 Great Kindness Challenge, which took place Jan. 26-30, resulted in record student participation with more than 4,000 participating schools and 2 million total students, which amounted to 100 million acts of kindness in schools nationwide. Dignity Health's more than 65,000 executives, employees, and physicians accepted the Great Kindness Challenge in hospital, clinic, and office settings as well, effectively "matching" the students' good deeds taking place in schools.

Dignity Health hospitals across Arizona, California, and Nevada partnered with neighborhood schools to support their activities, from hosting a teddy bear "Kindness Clinic" with kindergarteners in Southern California, to helping students create messages of kindness and encouragement that will be delivered to patients at Dignity Health hospitals in Arizona. In Las Vegas, St. Rose Dominican partnered with The Josh Stevens Foundation to kick off the Great Kindness Challenge at all three campus locations.

"We have always believed that kindness is a powerful source of healing, and that each of us has a tremendous capacity for compassion from the moment we're born," said president/CEO of Dignity Health, Lloyd H. Dean. "I am grateful and humbled by the millions of ways, large and small, that we helped turn kind deeds into unbreakable habits this week, and unleash the healing power that we've had within us all along."

A compilation video of the thoughtful and inspiring messages created by students for Dignity Health patients was released today and is available for viewing by clicking here.

To follow Dignity Health's acts of kindness, please visit facebook.com/dignityhealth.

The Great Kindness Challenge, created by non-profit Kids for Peace, is a bullying prevention initiative in elementary, middle, and high schools nationwide that challenges students to complete at least 50 acts of kindness in one week.

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