Check out any Hollywood movie set in high school and you’ll see the football captain portrayed as a dumb, arrogant jock who’s either a bully or a bystander, someone who passively watches other students get verbal and physical smackdowns. But Kevin Curwick, a 17-year-old senior who’s the football captain at Osseo High School in Minnesota plays against all those stereotypes. Disgusted by the cyberbullying of other teens on Twitter, Curwick decided to start his own social media campaign, Osseo Nice Things, where he tweets positive things about them.
Curwick told local television station KARE11 that even though he “wasn’t personally attacked,” the things he was seeing on Twitter “just hit me the wrong way.” He wanted everyone to feel welcomed at the school and in the town, so he launched his niceness campaign on July 29th, tweeting, “There are too many good people in Osseo to have any one of their reputations ruined.” He then specifically called out students that he felt needed encouragement. Tweets like “So good at dancing, gets more scholarships than D1 athletes. Shelby Perna,” and “Puts others before herself everyday. Unselfish friend. Haley Edwards,” pepper his feed.
Initially Curwick kept it under wraps that he was the person behind Osseo Nice Things, but the campaign quickly spread to neighboring communities and the media reached out to find out who was behind it. In the past 24 hours celebrities like Selena Gomez and Brooklyn Decker have given him shout outs for starting an epidemic of kindness. Given how pervasive bullying is, every school and community could certainly use a dose of positivity and kindness like what Curwick’s started. As for Osseo Nice Things, Curwick’s now taking submissions, tweeting, “Want to compliment someone? Direct Message me and it will be posted! #NiceItForward.”
