Madison Kindness Week and Chocolate Festival are Back in Feb 2025

Madison, CT (December 4, 2024) - After a fun inaugural Madison Kindness Week this past February, where the town of Madison was able to show why it may just be the kindest community in the state, organizers are bringing Madison Kindness Week back from February 7-15, 2025, with the promise to make the week even better - and even more fun - the second time around.

Madison Kindness Week was launched in February 2024 and served to highlight and promote the many acts of kindness throughout the town of Madison. For the upcoming Madison Kindness Week, the many acts of kindness performed throughout the Madison community will again be highlighted and, back by popular demand, the Madison Chocolate Festival at the Kindness Cafe will be held on Saturday, February 8 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., in Hubley Hall at the First Congregational Church (FCC) on the Green.

Kindness Week will also feature an expanded list of activities designed to encourage community participation:

Stand Up & Speak Out: The Concert will kick-off the week on Friday, February 7 at 7 p.m. in the Meeting House Sanctuary at FCC. If you are a middle or high school student who loves to sing, dance and act, this anti-bullying show is currently looking for cast members. Video auditions are now open. Please send a 30- to 60-second video that shows off your voice to susosing@gmail.com. Auditions close January 1, 2025.

Kindness-themed Haiku Poem Writing Workshop and Contest with Madison's First Poet Laureate Ed Lent. The workshop will be open to all ages and will be conducted from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on January 8th at Hubley Hall at FCC. Participants can then submit their Haiku poems in January (at a date to be determined) for consideration for a prize and to be read - by them - at the Madison Chocolate Festival. Haiku poems are traditional Japanese poems with 17 syllables in three lines of five, seven and five syllables.

There are two kindness-themed workshops at the E.C. Scranton Memorial Library both occurring from 5 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. on Tuesday, February 11th:

• “Creative Craft Night” (adult program) will feature a rock-painting project centered on the kindness theme. This will be a drop-in program, no registration required, in the creative loft (second floor);
• The library will also host an intergenerational card-making project (kindness theme) in the Children’s room. Registration will be required for this program via Scranton Library’s website.

More details and updates on these and other Madison Kindness Week programs will be announced via local media and the "Make Kindness Contagious Madison CT" Facebook page.

This year’s Madison Chocolate Festival at the Kindness Cafe will feature homemade baked goods and a cookie walk, as well as an expanded lunch menu and dessert choices, live music, activities for children, gift basket raffles and lots of delicious chocolate snacks and desserts. The Chocolate Festival will also include local chocolatiers providing their delectable chocolaty creations to purchase just in time for Valentine's Day!

The proceeds from the upcoming Madison Chocolate Festival will be used to purchase a refrigeration unit and cover costs to open a Shoreline soup kitchen at FCC.

"For us, there was no greater pleasure than to highlight the many acts of kindness that goes on in Madison on a daily basis - many that happen without people even knowing about them,” said Kindness Committee member Kevin Kane. “We want to bring those inspirational stories to the forefront and highlight all the great, kind activities going on. While we are at it, it never hurts to remind people that one of the most important things we can all do for each other is to always be kind."

The Kindness Committee is based at the First Congregational Church in Madison. This year, the committee began to expand its membership beyond the Church to make Kindness a community movement. The committee has also placed "Make Kindness Contagious" and "Kindness is Contagious" lawn signs throughout Madison and beyond (from Madison, Guilford and Clinton to Cape Cod, Massachusetts). The committee also operates the "Make Kindness Contagious Madison CT" Facebook page, which is open to all followers and provides inspirational messages on kindness as well as regular updates on Madison Kindness Week, the Chocolate Festival and all related topics and activities.

- end -