Dignity Health partnered with Kids for Peace to sponsor the 2018 Great Kindness Challenge. Now in its fifth year, this global program aims to inspire students to make a lifelong commitment to service and kindness. The event challenges participating students to complete a checklist of 50 acts of kindness in one week, including such things as holding the door for someone, helping a friend or picking up trash.

This year, physicians and staff from Dignity Health – Glendale Memorial Hospital taught students at Cerritos Elementary about the healing power of humankindness. Physicians led a “Teddy Bear Clinic” and showed students how to listen carefully while displaying compassion for others. Students also decorated “Thinking of You” cards that will be delivered to area fire stations to thank the thousands of firefighters who recently battled the California wildfires.