Kindness is contagious

Based on : Dear Mr. Kilmer

Presented by :

Amirah Iman Aida

5 Siti Fatimah (2017)

• Mrs. Hansen, Richard’s English teacher was so frustrated by the act of some Turtle Lake’s residents. They ruined the Schemers’ tavern by painting the wall with terrible words. (page 29)

• Mrs. Hansen felt sorry for Hannah. The kindness that light up in her soul asked her to do something.

• Mrs. Hansen came up with an idea which was requesting her student to sign a sympathy card but none of them signed the card except for Richard.

• Richard felt the same as what his teacher felt so he decided to do the right thing even though he was threatened by the trouble makers too.

• From this incident, we can see that the kindness from Mrs. Hansen had spread into Richard’s heart. Although it was only affecting towards Richard, but we must know that sometimes good things come from just an act of a person. It doesn’t require a group of army to stop a war, it just take a person with a pure heart to silent the fight.

• Richard was so nice towards Mr. Kilmer as he tried his best to cheer his beloved poet.

• Richard told the Schemer that Mr. Kilmer felt so gloomy as he cannot celebrate the Christmas with his family. (page 97)

• The Schemer felt inspired by Richard’s act before ; keeping in touch with one of American’s army to give him some moral support so they decided to help Richard in lifting up Mr. Kilmer’s spirit.

• Hannah baked some delightful cookies while her mother knitted a lovely scarf to warm up Mr. Kilmer as the winter started to show up.

• They sent all the gifts with Richard’s letter to Mr. Kilmer.

• The moral value of kindness can be clearly seen from this event as the kindheartedness of Richard had moved into the Schemers’ souls.

• Joyce Kilmer is a famous poet with such an impressive collection of writing.

• He was being so kind as he willing to reply the letter from Richard although he is a well-known poet and has his own career which needs him to spend most of his time to fulfill it.

• He was able to just ignore the letter but as he is a kind hearted man and an inspirational man, he decided to write back to Richard.

• He is the one who give Richard some support for Richard to exposed his interest towards his family members and friends.

• By Mr. Kilmer’s kindness, Richard managed to overcome his fear. In addition, Richard took over Mr. Kilmer’s place as he started to cheer the community using his poem. The kindness keeps affecting the people of Turtle Lake each day.

1. State two simple ways on how to light up a person’s life with kindness.

2. What do you think will happen to Richard’s secret hobby if his first letter was not replied by Joyce Kilmer?