Community Kindness Award
Do you know a kind person making a difference in their community?
Kind Works seeks to recognize outstanding humans who demonstrate exceptional kindness and contribute positively to their communities. This ongoing initiative will acknowledge recipients multiple times each year through a transparent and inclusive nomination and committee selection process.
The Goal of this Initiative
Recognizing individuals for their kindness serves an essential role: it highlights positive actions, motivating others to observe and replicate generous and compassionate behavior.
Such acknowledgment affirms the significance of kind gestures, demonstrating that these efforts are valued. This recognition not only enhances the morale of honorees but also inspires others, contributing to a ripple effect that benefits families, neighborhoods, and broader communities. By celebrating acts of kindness, we nurture a culture where empathy and gratitude become integral, strengthening connections and a sense of belonging. Appreciation of good deeds further encourages ongoing kindness, sustaining an environment of goodwill that uplifts all involved.
Kind Works:
We will acknowledge the recipient with a small ceremony, featuring the recipient and the person who nominated them. Members of their family and community will be invited as well. And we will present the recipient with Kindness gifts created by Kind Works volunteers.
We will encourage community involvement by promoting nominations and supporting recognition of awardees.
How to get involved and what is the process:
If you know a kind person that is making a difference in their community, please fill out this brief application.
share this form with people in your community and help spread the word so that we can all be on the lookout to celebrate kind acts and kind people.
Kind Works will receive applications throughout the year and will plan on acknowledging someone roughly every 4 months with a goal of having 4 individuals acknowledged from October 2025- October 2026.
Kindness Award Winners 2026
Patty Deuschle
Patty gives willingly to so many in the Bethel community. Often she’s volunteering through her church, Relay for Life, the Scotty Fund or other charities - giving both her time and talents to others. She’s the first to jump to action when a family needs a meal or a pick me up. She jumps to action when groups like our school and local theaters need assistance with sets or props. With so much jumping, you’d think she’d be tired but her energy for others seems boundless. You can find her around town, a fervent believer in supporting local, a participatory member of small town Bethel charm. Many would agree, she’s the epitome of kind, generous, and loving. I’m lucky to have her as part of my chosen family, helping me care for my home bound mother, another fact that makes her deserving of every award.
Nominated by - Crystal Morgan
Michelle Cook
Michelle is a rare soul with a true heart of gold. Her deepest wish is simple, yet profound: to ensure that every human being has a home filled with the basic necessities of life. From our veterans to those experiencing homelessness, she has stepped into the gaps to provide food, shelter, and a lifeline to those battling addiction and domestic violence.
What makes Michelle truly remarkable is her absolute humility. She has done all of this expecting zero reward, looking for nothing in return, and never asking for physical or monetary help. But as her community, we know a mission this grand cannot be completed alone. That is why we voluntarily step up to give alongside her—because her selflessness inspires us to be better.
Her kindness isn’t just a concept; it is an immediate action. Michelle has helped so many, like the time she rescued an elderly woman walking alone in her nightgown on a cold, rainy night, and passionately followed through until she was safely placed in assisted living. Even tonight, on her way to work, Michelle didn't hesitate to pause her life to bring food, hugs, and consoling comfort to a dear friend in need.
Michelle, you don't just hope for a better world—you build it with your own hands, showing us all the true power of a single, compassionate, and faithful heart. We love you. ~ Lorraine
Nominated by - Lorraine Amaral
Rebecca (Becki) Lang
Becki introduced Kind Works to the Hill and Plain Elementary school community this year starting at the beginning of the school year culminating in our beautiful mural installed just last month at the school. Not only did she do the research about the organization, what they do, and how our school could get involved; but she navigated the entire process including driving fundraisers to raise the funds and generating awareness and excitement in the community.
The entire school learned about the organizations existence, the importance of kindness and how they could get involved - even with the simplest of actions at school - and were even gifted kindness tokens that have been circulating throughout the school and encouraging kind behavior. Students and staff were also able to take pride in the fact that they had a hand in created the mural that now hangs at the school reminding everyone who visits the school or even drives by to BE KIND!
Becki took an important school value and helped make it into something that everyone in our HPS community is proud of and will never forget.
Nominated by Jennifer Wren
Ayona Jaswal
Ayona Jaswal is a 15-year-old Grade 10 honours student who has transformed her own health challenges into a global movement of kindness and compassion.
As the founder of “The Kindness and Smile Zone”, launched in June 2025, she leads a youth-driven initiative dedicated to bringing comfort and smiles to hospitalized children around the world.
Inspired by her experiences as a patient at SickKids and Victoria Hospital, Ayona has mobilized more than 25 youth volunteers and impacted over 400 children across 10 countries through activity packs, handmade cards, educational blogs, and webinars. Her initiative has secured funding through a Government of Canada micro-grant for mental wellness programming and additional support for French-language resources, while also giving back through a donation partnership with the Children’s Health Foundation.
An author of Colors of Courage, classical dancer, and musician, Ayona has been recognized with the BMO Young Adult of the Year Award, a Horizon Academic Scholarship, features on CBC News, and ambassadorships with the Children’s Health Foundation, Fall Dream Lottery, and SickKids.