“Since she could walk, she served her uncle who had special needs,” said Ridgecrest fifth-grade student Lily Hoescherl. “She realized how by brightening up his life, she was helping herself at the same time. Her dad would tell her to do something good for someone and that’s what she’s doing every day. It’s what she challenged us to do.”
Lily and her Ridgecrest classmates listened to Miss Utah Dexonna Talbot tell her story about how she developed the term “servesteem,” which became her pageant platform and message she’s carrying out to students.
Dog-sitting for neighbors, showing visitors around the school, smiling to people, serving on safety patrol, mowing the yard, and helping a sister with reading are some of the ways Lily and fifth-grade classmates Jack Atencio and Mikelle Walker are meeting the week-long challenge Talbot set.
“By helping someone else, it makes me feel good, too,” Jack said.
That is what Talbot hopes will happen with each student who accepted her challenge.
“If they can show kindness, serve others, then they can feel the best about themselves and love others,” she said. “If we’re constantly serving in small acts, holding the door open, smiling, then it can create a chain reaction. If these students perform about 1,000 acts of kindness in this one week, it could spark change for them for the rest of their lives.”
Continue reading on the Cottonwood Heights Journal.