"Life is short, and it goes by fast," said Masonic Village at Elizabethtown resident Mary Jones. "It's so important to share with each other and try to make the world a better place."

That's just what Jones did when she and a team of volunteers organized activities for residents at the Elizabethtown retirement community during Be Kind to Humankind Week, Aug. 25 to 31.

As Jones explained, the idea for the project came about after Jones and a friend were discussing how they feel that kindness has fallen out of favor in today's society.

"A lot of people here at Masonic need a little high, and we thought it would be nice if we could come up with acts of kindness," she said.

Jones, who is president of the Village Green Association at Masonic Village, gathered a group of about 15 residents who started planning activities a few months ago.

During Be Kind to Humankind Week, the group handed out painted rocks and encouraged residents to write a positive message on them before placing the rocks somewhere on the campus for others to find or passing the rocks on to someone else. They crafted honeybees out of pipe cleaners and created a cornhole-like game with prizes, passed out stickers about kindness, wrapped a kind saying in napkins for meals and distributed loaves of bread made by a resident.

"We frosted and decorated 1,300 cookies with smiley faces," Jones shared. "We passed them out to everybody on campus."

The kindness activities were well-received by the residents, she noted, adding, "People have been talking about it all over the place. It's neat to go by and hear someone talking about it. It's been a very good week."

Jones said an unexpected bonus came from the week as well. "The group that helped with this project has bonded so nice with each other," she stated. "They talked about how good it was just to get together and how much fun we all had doing this."

The group is already working on plans for next year's kindness week.

"It's been a nice opportunity to make everybody feel a little happier," Jones said. "It's a reminder that we're all so blessed and that we should try to live every day to the fullest."