Profs and councilors, coaches and entrepreneurs, doctors and ordinary citizens, united under the sign of politeness. In a few months, a network of over 500 people, which every day infects more and more people in Italy. It is the purple wave of the “army of kindness” that is peacefully invading schools, municipalities, hospitals, sports fields. As weapons, a nice gesture, a reassuring word, a gift. The goal is to spread the culture of kindness. The real one. Yes, because there is a kindness that comes from the heart. And a manipulator, the one who weaves the spider’s web and waits for the victims to be trapped.
Luca Nardi, Piedmontese from Lessolo, knew “manipulative kindness” as a child, but only recognized it in adulthood. And that awareness turned it into positive energy. Nardi, now a 41-year-old doctor of sports science, decided that this trauma could become the occasion for a far-reaching project. “Let’s build kindness”, an initiative launched in the middle of the pandemic, in the space of a few months has collected more than five hundred members throughout Italy and in various sectors of society: above all teachers (280), coaches (120) and public administrators (160) . To join, the will to experience kindness with concrete actions is enough. This is how today we have municipal councilors with responsibility for kindness, teachers for kindness, coaches for kindness: “A network that supports each other, grows and exchanges experiences”, explains Nardi.
The project was born from the Cor et Amor association, of Ivrea, of which Nardi is co-founder: “Educating childhood to kindness is not just teaching” thank you, good morning and goodbye. “Kindness is not such a clear concept: there is that of the heart and that of manipulation. In 2015 we organized the first Games of kindness, precisely to make children understand these differences “.
A path that has evolved until the project started in 2020. One of the most widespread initiatives is that of the “purple bench”, purple as the color of kindness: “170 Municipalities have signed up. The purple bench in a public space – underlines Nardi – it is not a piece of furniture, it is above all a moment of reflection “.
There are dozens of initiatives implemented in the most varied sectors. In Otranto, in Puglia, the councilor Stefania Temis has created the “Beach of kindness”, a space equipped for disabled people. In Messina, in the Principe di Piemonte institute, Professor Katia Gussio created, together with pupils and pupils, the Book of kind thoughts. In the Municipality of Gaby (Aosta) the councilor for kindness Stefania Bonin has launched the “walk of kindness”: each citizen chooses a piece of road or path and cleans it up. In San Michele Mondovì (Cuneo) Nicoletta Biga and Marta Migliore, educators of kindness, have created the “Banco della gentilezza”, where citizens can have plants and flowers as a gift.
An exemplary story is Matteo Lotti, 36, a master’s degree in historical sciences, but a mini-basketball instructor by vocation in Virtus, a sports club in Riva del Garda, in Trentino. He has been a “kindness coach” for a few weeks. “For me, the certification of what I already am and practice. As a player, respect has always been a value for me: I have never hired a coach in my career. As a coach I think I have girls and boys who will one day be adults before athletes: I teach them fair play, for example by not making a basket when an opponent is on the ground. If they make a mistake, I encourage them to strengthen them. To the parents – continues Lotti – I say to applaud the opponents too “.
.