For many, the holiday season means a time to give back to those in need. Two TCAPS schools are encouraging just that during the inaugural Acts of Kindness photo contest, which began earlier this week and runs through January 5th.

The contest is the brainchild of West Senior High seniors Olympia Sanchez and Erica Keene, who hope their senior Student Senate project becomes a permanent Traverse City fixture.

“There is just so much criticism and bad attitudes in young people that we felt the need to do something that can be enlightening for us all, to make us better people,” says Sanchez. “In general, we are just hoping to make everyone realize that it is the little things that you do that can really make a difference. Even if this project makes one person a better person, then we'd still say that this project was successful.”

The heart of the contest is simple: snap a shot of someone committing an act of kindness. Judges are collecting submissions and determining the winning school. The contest is a friendly rivalry between West Senior High and Central High School and their corresponding middle schools -- though the competition isn’t the important part.

“The incentive to contribute to Acts of Kindness is a friendly ‘competition’ between the east side and west side of Traverse City,” explains Sanchez. “But we aren't at all focused on the ‘competition’ aspect, but about the motivation it iterates in all students. We aim to have students want to participate because it makes them feel like a really good person, especially around the holiday season.”

As for the acts of kindness themselves, the possibilities are endless.

“Acts of kindness can be done at every second of the day,” Sanchez continues. “If you see someone sitting alone at lunch, why not invite him or her to sit with you? Know someone who's having a bad week? Why not make them a little card or buy them a chocolate bar just to let them know you're thinking of them? Even saying hello to a passing stranger can be an act of kindness. Encouraging others, being helpful, and just being kind are traits that we hope everyone will acquire more of after this project.”

Sanchez and Keene’s adviser, Andy Baumann, says the contest is in good hands.

“When I first heard Olympia's and Erica's proposal for the project I thought it sounded like a big undertaking,” says Baumann. “Both girls are veteran senators with lots of experience. They are both very motivated and outgoing students. If anyone was going to pull it off, I knew they could.”

Sanchez and Keene hope to not only continue the competition annually, but expand it city-wide.

“What we want to do as soon as this time frame is over is hopefully create a city-wide known [Twitter] hashtag or website that is Traverse City Acts of Kindness, where everyone can be involved year-round with happy giving,” Sanchez explains. “We definitely want to make it a big thing that everyone can do.”