Bethel Nonprofit Aims for People to Try a Little Kindness

From road-rage incidents to food-line clashes on cruise ships, not a day goes by where you don’t hear news of people behaving awfully in public. That doesn’t even begin to count the slurs flung at complete strangers on social media by angry keyboard warriors.

It may seem quaint, but politeness and decorum weren’t always viewed as recipes for snobbery or repression. Instead, they were guidelines for public behavior that people, by and large, followed. Our moms and dads knew that by expressing kindness, we would help build a kinder, more considerate society.

Now, there’s an organization headquartered right in Bethel that is attempting to restore civility and kindness to public and private life. It’s called Kind Works and while it now bears a new name, it’s been around locally for more than a decade.

“Our organization has a great mission: to get everyone to be kind to one another,” said Kind Works Executive Director Cody Foss. “When people see someone acting with kindness, we want them to provide that kind person with a token gift that validates their kindness. They, in turn, are encouraged to recognize kindness in others and to pass along those tokens.

“If we can all find and recognize kindness, that will be a very impactful tool for change, for making this world a kinder, better place for all of us,” he noted.

Kind Works also provides a great example of how resilient people can keep an organization alive in a time of change and turmoil. It began its life locally as a satellite of the Arizona-based group Ben’s Bells, whose name owed to the handcrafted bells and other commemorative objects its members gave to recognize kindness and good works in the community. Ben’s Bells began in Arizona in 2002 but first arrived in Connecticut in 2013.

In mid-2024, Ben’s Bells closed all its satellites except for those in Arizona. Its Connecticut volunteers and other stakeholders met to chart a new course for the local group, renaming it in the process.

“We wanted something that would resonate with our mission and what we are about: kindness,” said Mallory Bruno, the manager of the KindWorks studio at 32 Stony Hill Road. “This was an occasion to make it all about something beautiful in the community.”

The group operates modestly: Foss and Bruno are the only employees. They’re blessed, however, with a large team of volunteers. They include plenty of teens, retirees, and students and teachers from area schools.

The Kind Works studio also functions as a retail store that sells its bells and other handcrafted merchandise; volunteers labor tirelessly to keep it stocked. To work here, a volunteer must be 14 or older, though an exception is made when an adult volunteer arrives with someone younger.

The studio is equipped with a kiln to fire ceramic bells, beads and jewelry, seasonal ornaments, and simple tokens that the group uses to recognize acts of kindness. Holidays and weekends tend to be busy, as volunteers flock to the studio to mold and hand paint these one-of-a-kind items of giftware.

“All of our ceramic merchandise is handcrafted by dedicated volunteers,” said Foss. “Additionally, we offer a range of kindness-themed apparel and branded products sourced from reputable suppliers. These items include stickers, clothing, hats, candles, lapel pins, and more merchandise.”

People who purchase merchandise are informed that their support contributes to the organization’s mission and operations. Besides purchasing items with messages such as “be kind,” some products have additional significance. For instance, Kindness
Tokens are designed to be passed from person to person when a kind act is observed, thus promoting ongoing acts of kindness in communities.

Indeed, passing on Kind Works items is part of the process. Recipients of wares such as bells and tokens often hang them from lampposts, fences, and other public places. 

While the studios wares serve as a quiet form of recognition, several other initiatives also spread its message more loudly. One of those is its Kind Schools program. People from schools will also visit the Kind Works studio to craft and paint numerous clay tiles. These in turn make up beautiful school murals.

“The schoolchildren themselves make all the tiles and then help to create the mural,” said Bruno. “This becomes a visual reminder of the kindness message, which students, teachers, parents, and other community members will see every day.”

Parents and other members of the local communities are invited to take part in making murals. There are now 70 KindWorks murals throughout Connecticut, plus another 10 in Westchester County and Long Island, New York.

“This past spring we created a ‘tree mural’ at a school in Port Washington, Long Island,” Bruno said. “It has leaves in all the different colors of the rainbow and messages in over 10 different languages.”

Foss, who recently returned from leading a workshop in Massachusetts, aims for the group to do more such events. “We haven’t done enough, but the word is getting out about Kind Works,” he said. 

Meg Jones, a teacher from New Milford, has developed a line of kindness-themed stepping stones and benches for gardens and other pathways. The current crop will be auctioned off to help raise funds for the organization.

Roxanne Novella, an exec at Boehringer Ingelheim in Danbury, leads a Thursday night group of volunteers that has a difference: It is intentionally multigenerational. The Thursday group is an outgrowth of Novella’s own experience as a volunteer. 

“I found a bell, and I first began volunteering with a cousin,” Novella recalled. “We invited our moms – they are now 84 and 86 years old and they are still involved, along with their friends. We’re all here every Thursday. I also come in on Saturday to help run the studio.”

Novella has also been an enthusiastic participant in the group's corporate program. In addition to helping bring this program to her workplace, she has led several workshops for her co-workers at Boehringer Ingelheim.

For Jones and Bruno, the involvement in what would become Kind Works was also through a personal connection with the late Liz Teed. Teed was Bruno’s fourth-grade teacher and Jones’ sister-in-law. “After Liz passed away, I kept coming in to volunteer in her honor,” said Jones.

“She was passionate about the group and got me involved when I was younger,” said Bruno, who became an employee after graduating from college in 2020.

Each fall, Kind Works runs its signature World Kindness Day event, in which volunteers hang hundreds of its bells in easily visible public places throughout Bethel. It’s scheduled this year on Thursday, November 13. Each item bears a simple request: to take it down and then to share it with someone else in recognition of an act of kindness.

As a result, Kind Works bells and other items have begun to show up in far-flung places. Relatively close to home, such places include Block Island, R.I. Father afield, they’ve even turned up in parts of Europe.

“We are a public studio, and we invite anyone interested to come craft bells and other items with us,” noted Bruno, who noted that making these wares is a quick-to-learn skill.

For more information, go to the organization’s website at https://www.kind-works.org/ or contact them by phone at (203) 616-5591. You can also reach out to Kind Works by email at info.kindworks@gmail.com.

Of note, Kind Works has a robust array of activities planned for the fall, beginning with the launch of its Community Kindness Award on October 1. To learn more about upcoming events, go to https://www.kind-works.org/events.

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