When Kristina Ulmer, an English teacher at Hatboro-Horsham High School, lost her sister Kate Amodei in a tragic 2014 car accident, she sought a way to honor her memory, writes Brea Dangelo for The Reporter.
In 2018, she found it—through her students.
Kate had dreamed of joining the Peace Corps and dedicated her life to helping others. Among her belongings was a small wad of cash from her restaurant job, untouched for years. During a classroom discussion on empathy in Fahrenheit 451, Ulmer saw an opportunity: she gave her students $20 each, challenging them to spread kindness in Kate’s name.
The response was overwhelming. Students crocheted hats for NICU babies, funded pet adoptions, donated essentials to shelters, honored veterans, and even created traditions like handing out donuts to strangers. Their creativity and generosity turned a simple classroom assignment into a community-wide movement.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the initiative continued, growing to 351 acts of kindness, with an average of 25 students participating each semester.
Ulmer’s challenge has transformed grief into a legacy of compassion, proving that small acts of kindness can create ripples of change—one student, one gesture, and one $20 bill at a time.
Read more about Kristina Ulmer and her students at Hatboro-Horsham High School in The Reporter.
