Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
- Aspen Rowley, a 12-year-old from Saratoga Springs, was named Kindest Kid in America on Friday.
- She received a gold medal and a children's book detailing her acts of kindness.
- The program, founded by Jessie Hansen, aims to inspire kindness to make schools a better place for everyone.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — In a surprise assembly at Sage Hills Elementary, 12-year-old Aspen Rowley was designated Friday as the "Kindest Kid in America."
"It's just crazy. The thought that I'm literally just a girl who wants to make a difference in life, and I did!" she said.
When Aspen came to the assembly Friday, she had no idea she was about to receive a gold medal from Saratoga Springs Mayor Jim Miller and a video from Gov. Spencer Cox congratulating her.
Aspen said she loves being kind because she can make others happy, and it makes her happy.
"It's just the feeling I get when I'm kind," Aspen said. "You complimented someone, and it made them feel good, which means you made them feel good! It's just small, but it can make a really big difference in someone's day and life."
As part of being crowned the Kindest Kid in America, Aspen received a children's book all about her kindness. "Princess Aspen" details how Aspen gave food to the homeless, cleaned up trash in nature, wrote kind notes for her family, included a boy in her class who was left out, as well as other kind acts she has done.
Aspen serves the community through being Little Miss Saratoga Springs, along with her older sister who is Miss Saratoga Springs. Aspen also started a Helping Club where she and her friends go around perform service projects.
"My heart is so full," Aspen's mother Toni Rowley said. She said her daughter is "one of a kind," inherently aware of other people, and always wants to be kind to everyone.
"I'm not just saying it because she's my daughter, but she truly looks out for other people. She loves everybody and is always looking for some way to serve someone or do some kind of act of service," Rowley said.
Rowley was emotional while the children's book about her daughter was read aloud. She said their family has been through some difficult times recently, but her daughter has only increased her kindness to others.
"We have lost two family members to suicide, and with that, I have made sure with our whole family to look out for people. Even if you see something, anything, make sure they feel loved and seen. Because what if we are the one person that can make a difference?" Rowley said.
Principal Terri Rigby said the school has implemented a positive-behavior system where students and classes can earn rewards for being positive, respectful and kind. There were so many kind students at the school to choose from, but Aspen is "top notch," Rigby said.
"I am so excited for her," Rigby said. "Their family has been through so much, but yet she always comes to school happy and is nice to everyone."
Kindest Kid in America founder Jessie Hansen created the program as part of her capstone for her doctorate in social work.
"I knew I wanted to do something with kindness because it's the most powerful thing on our planet," she said.
She and her team were wanting to do something that could "help even a little bit" with preventing school shootings and decided on this program to inspire kindness so no kid feels left out or excluded.
There have been six kids chosen since Kindest Kid in America's inception in September 2024, including a girl in Enterprise, Washington County, last month. Each one gets a book written about them and a special assembly in their honor.
"The goal is just to make it as big and beautiful as possible so that other kids — we want Aspen to feel like a rock star — but we want the other kids to be inspired to be kind, too," Hansen said.
Hansen shared in the assembly how she got caught up being mean as a child and learned that she didn't want to be that way. Everyone has been hurt at some point, so we should all change the cycle to kindness instead of hate, she said.
Hansen encouraged the students to create a "kindness explosion" by doing seven acts of kindness for the next five days to equal 5,000 acts of kindness total.
Schools that want to join in can contact the program and nominate as many students as they want for the award. Hansen's team will choose the winner, who will then be awarded in an assembly and have a custom children's book written about them. People can also nominate children on social media to put "kindness into the world" and tag the organization.
"Everyone can do something to help make our world kinder," Hansen said.
