World Compliment Day was celebrated on March 1, and at Mandalay Elementary School in the Wantagh School District it served as a reminder about the kindness that should spread year-round. 

Every student in the school was tasked with a writing compliment to a classmate. One a piece of paper resembling a gold coin, each child wrote a kind message starting with the prompt, “You are…” Guidance counselor Donna Shulman then took the completed coins and created a “Compliments are priceless” pot of gold display in the hallway. 

“I like doing compliments because it tells people how much you care about them,” second grader Charlotte Esposito said.

Charlotte is in Colleen O’Callaghan’s class, where students read aloud the compliments they wrote to each other before they were added to the school display. 

Luca Curcio said compliments are a way to make other people happy, while Reagan Warch said the activity gave students a chance to express a feeling they might have been thinking, but didn’t know how to say.