Rosemount Students Start Kindness Project In Late Friend’s Honor

ROSEMOUNT, MN— Monday kicked off #13ActsForCap, a 13-day project focused on spreading kindness in remembrance of Cap George, a student at Rosemount High School who died of brain cancer on March 10, 2020.

#13ActsForCap is a 13-day project beginning on March 1 and ending March 13 encouraging the community to complete an act of kindness each day to honor the kindness and positivity spread by George. Community members can share their act of kindness on Facebook or Instagram using the hastag #13ActsForCap.

Planned to take place over the anniversary of George's death, the project was started by a group of parents and carried out through a group of five students from Rosemount High School: Hannah Stickler, Alex Stocke, Izzy Yahr, Ava Williams, and Alli Zeigler.

George was described by his peers as an avid lover of sports and someone who loved being around his friends and family.

“I think most people would describe him as a class clown,” Hannah Stickler said. “He knew how to make everyone laugh-that was Cap, he was funny. I think everyone was friends with Cap, I don’t think anyone could say a bad thing about him.”

Izzy Yahr told Patch that George had “the best smile," lighting up any room he entered.

“Even when I was sad one day or anything like that, Cap could always make my day a little brighter,” Yahr said.

Ava Williams told Patch that George was always trying to cheer up and inspire others.

“Even when he was going through some of the darkest moments in his life, it was never really about him,” Williams said. “He was always looking to cheer up everybody else around him, which is where we took our inspiration for this project from, because he never made things about him even when they should have been.”

Alex Stocke told Patch that he first met George on the first day of middle school, when he sat across from him on the bus.

“You could just tell instantly that he was going to be very friendly, and that you were going to be able to talk to him,” Stocke said.

The project was originally planned to be the group’s senior service project, Stocke told Patch. However, the district doesn’t allow senior service projects to memorialize students, out of fear that some students may not be memorialized. This led the group to do the project on their own time.

Williams told Patch that the school has been very supportive of the group’s work, letting them use the school for donation collections and passing out t-shirts.

Stocke told Patch that his mom and a group of parents came up with the idea of acts of kindness, and Stocke decided that peers of George should get involved in the project.

“One of the first nights they decided what to do I was like ‘we should get people involved who actually knew him personally’. That made the project more personal,” Stocke said.

Stocke told Patch that the committee for this project originally formed in November, getting more students involved mid-December.

The group wasn’t expecting the project to gain as much attention as it did.

Williams told Patch that the group was expecting just their peers and some parents to participate. On the first day of the project, 25 people posted their acts of kindness on social media. Day two brought in 30 posts by the early afternoon.

“It’s growing every day, little by little,” Williams told Patch. “We’ve still got 11 more days left after today(Tuesday).”

Examples of acts of kindness have so far included cash and other donations, leaving cheerful post-it notes in public places, giving small gifts of appreciation to others, and paying for other people’s food or drinks.

Any cash donations received by the group goes to the CapStrong Corporation, founded by George’s family. The Corporation has donated to various organizations that helped them, including a children’s hospital. The #13ActsForCap group also donated proceeds from their t-shirts to the CapStrong Corporation.

The number 13 shows up in both the $13 donations and the 13 acts. This is because George was #13 on Rosemount High School’s football team.

Williams told Patch that this project is a way to both memorialize George and spread kindness throughout the community.

“The point that we really want to get across is that he was such an amazing individual that we were inspired to create an entire project around him,” Williams said. “Especially in times like these where there’s not a lot of human connection, and a lot of people are struggling, we just really wanted to not only honor and memorialize our friend for the way he lived his life rooted in kindness, but also spread kindness throughout the community in his honor.”

Stickler told Patch how selfless George was, even through his struggle with cancer.

“Even when Cap was going through those dark times in his life when it should have been all about him, he made sure that everyone else around him was okay, or that they were happy that day,” Stickler said. “Cap was all about helping others. We want to make sure that we reach out to everyone and they know that we can help other people in these difficult times.”