On November 15, a crack squad of students and staff embarked on a mission of mirth, venturing deep into the city center to deliver smiles to the people of Chongqing.

This was YCIS Chongqing’s second Annual Smile Campaign. This project, launched last academic year, was inspired by a video in which six year old Jaden Hayes, who, after losing both of his parents and going through dark times, decided that he would help improve the lives of others. He launched the ‘Smile Campaign’, giving gifts to strangers with the goal of collecting 33,000 smiles. Last year we were able to add to the global total by inspiring over 1000 smiles…our goal this year was to DOUBLE that number of grins and achieve 2000 smiles. Did we succeed….?

Students selected for demonstrating the traits we have celebrated in Character Education so far this year joined the YCIS Chongqing Primary and Secondary Student Councils as well as our Student Support Team staff and special guest VIP Stephen Hackman (Head of Yew Chung Educational Foundation’s Christian and Community Development Division) in this endeavor.

Earlier in the semester, primary students participated in a Smile Sticker Design Contest. The entrants were so fantastic; we couldn’t select a single winner! In the end, four winning designs were chosen and printed to serve as symbol of our gift of smiles. In addition, these winning stickers were used to create the Smile Campaign T-shirt design.

At 9 am, the team set off to the People’s Liberation Monument in Jiefangbei. Spreading out in all directions, our teams spent the morning serving up smiles and spreading our message throughout the downtown area. After lunch, our teams set out again to spread happiness and smiles throughout the Aegean Center Shopping Mall in Renhe. Our efforts were warmly received and our students made a positive impact on the shopkeepers and shoppers alike.

During this campaign, our students demonstrated humanity, respect, responsibility and kindness in addition to behaving well. We are very proud of them!

Oh…and that goal of 2000 SMILES? We far exceeded that goal! Our students created over 2500 Smiles in one day…how many smiles can you inspire today? This week? This year? As one of our stickers reminded us…’We all speak different languages, but we all smile in the same language’.