Alaska teen launches ‘AK Kind Challenge’

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Every year on Feb. 17, people acknowledge National Random Acts of Kindness Day — a day to celebrate selflessness and kind acts towards others. One Alaska teenager is making it her mission to promote kindness in the state.

“I started thinking back to my different experiences with bullying and how that affected me and how I handled it,” says Bethany Greenlund, a Miss High School America titleholder. “In middle school, I was bullied because I had double curved scoliosis and I wore a full abdomen plastic back brace, I was teased for that, and as I got into high school it turned into cyberbullying. And I know my experience is not one that’s isolated.”

Greenlund decided to promote Building Respect, Acceptance and Voice through Education, by launching the AK Kind Challenge.

“I’m encouraging people to do acts of kindness in their day-to-day lives, post it and tag me,” says Greenlund. “Anything from just holding the door for a stranger to buying a coffee for the person behind you, smiling at a stranger — just anything you think will improve someone else’s day.”

According to the National Bullying Prevention Center, one out of every five students report being bullied. Greenlund says she hopes to change that by challenging people to look out for one another and spread kindness throughout the community and the state.

“We’ve all heard this message that we should be nice to others and bullying isn’t okay, but I wanted to create a viral challenge of making kindness a cool thing that we all do in our day to day lives, in hopes of creating a better tomorrow,” says Greenlund.

Every act of kindness posted and tagged to Greenlund is an entry to win one of three $100 educational kindness scholarships. To participate in the challenge, tag Greenlund on Facebook @MissAlaskaHigh2021 and use the hash tags #BRAVE, #MissHSAmerica or #MissAKHighChallenge.