In time for the holidays, H.D. Hilley Elementary joined the Pinksocks tribe, spreading kindness throughout the school and the community.
Pinksocks Life welcomed the Mustangs into the fold at the school’s kindness rally on Oct. 26.
Pinksocks is a community of more than 200,000 happy, smiling people whose mission is to create a global movement of empathy, caring and love. The organization distributes bright pink socks adorned with mustaches and puzzle pieces to empower people of all ages and all walks of life to connect and be kind to one another.
"Social-emotional learning is a big key in all schools, whether elementary, middle school or high school," said H.D. Hilley Principal Darlene Hernandez. "But more important because we as administrators, as leaders of the campus, we need to provide those opportunities to connect and be there for each other and stress the importance of being kind to each other."
Hernandez said the highlight of the rally was when Dr. Sue A. Shook Elementary student council members gifted pink socks to everyone in H.D. Hilley, including pre-K to fifth-grade students, teachers and staff.
Students cheered as socks were handed out, including fifth-grader Mia Arvizu, who said she was thankful for the bright pink stockings. She planned to wear them every Friday to school.
“The reason that it’s important to be kind is if you don’t be kind, no one is going to treat you how you want to be treated,” Arvizu said.
The Pinksocks movement at SISD continues Zelene Blancas’s legacy of spreading kindness. Blancas was a first-grade teacher at Dr. Sue A. Shook Elementary before she passed away in December 2020. She caught the attention of Pinksocks Life co-founder Nick Adkins in 2019 after she posted a video on Twitter encouraging her students to be kind to one another.
"If it weren't for Ms. Blancas, we wouldn't be here," Adkins said during the rally. "Think of all the lives Ms. Blancas has touched. Her students through the years, and now her memory of love and kindness, the ripple effects of Ms. Blancas's life have left us with something to be very grateful for. And I'm super grateful to see all of you, the kindness ambassadors."
Adkins said the Pinksocks movement has spread to 13 SISD campuses, including O'Shea Keleher Whole Child Academy, where Mario Blancas, Zelene Blancas’s brother, is a special education teacher.
Mario Blancas said promoting kindness was vital to his sister. Her vision was to spread the Pinksocks movement to every SISD school and the other school districts in El Paso.
"I feel very proud about my sister, my 'Wonder Woman,'” Mario Blancas said. "She was a pioneer in many aspects and a warrior when it was about her (professional and personal) goals and her family. I think my sister planted the seed for kindness, which will eventually grow and flourish as her legacy continues."
School Counselor Carmen Bebon jumped at the chance to organize the kindness rally at H.D. Hilley. Bebon was inspired by how student council members at Dr. Sue A. Shook raised money to send pink socks to former students at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, this spring. She plans to follow their lead and have H.D. Hilley's student council members raise funds to give pink socks to an SISD elementary school next year.
"Kindness is the culture of your campus, and it needs to be around and present all the time," Bebon said. "Any time we can celebrate kindness and celebrate kids, that's what we're going to do."