High school is a place to learn more about your peers and yourself. Acts of kindness shown by students enhance one’s overall high school experience, no matter how small they may be. Working conveniently through social media, a new Instagram account is striving to encourage generosity and positivity throughout the school.

Started on Thursday, Oct. 19, @hchs_daredevils is an account in which students are given weekly dares to complete in order to promote friendliness throughout the halls of school. A different dare is posted each Monday, and those who direct message pictures of themselves completing the dare have a chance to be featured on the account.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BathLVdFAg5/?hl=en&taken-by=hchs_daredevils

“The mission is to dare kids to be positive. The whole hashtag ‘dare to be positive’ is what we are trying to start,” said Molly Schwarz, senior involved with the account. “Our thought process is if somebody gives you a task to do in a week, and it’s a positive task, you’ll do it because you’ll be actively thinking about it.”

HCHS Daredevils has rapidly gained popularity from all around school. Currently, it stands at more than 200 followers just after the first dare was posted.

The first dare, posted Monday, Oct. 23, was to fill up a water bottle for a friend. The post had many positive comments, some speaking of the wholesome nature of the dare. 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BanN5Silu7N/?hl=en&taken-by=hchs_daredevils

HC Daredevils is meant to stay somewhat anonymous, with the managers of the Instagram account not being openly stated. It is referred to as more of a school-wide goal than a club, and it does not have specific leaders.

“HCHS Daredevils is a collaboration between clubs within the school,” said Mrs. Sally Phillip, activities director.

With social media and technology common and accessible to most high school students, the Instagram account has been successful in reaching the student body.

“I think that the mission is going to be really effective because we are using social media to ‘dare’ kids to do something positive,” Schwarz said. “I think if you see [the dares] on Instagram, you’re more likely to actually do them.”

Amongst the students at Central, the account and its goal are spoken highly of as they become more well known.

“I think [the HC Daredevils account] is a really great way to spread positivity and kindness throughout our school- which is always needed,” said Joey Sullivan, junior.

With the four years of high school being highly influential on one’s life, showing kindness never hurts. Being in the form of dares, students are bound to take advantage of the opportunities to do acts of kindness while still having fun.

“All of our dares aren’t going to be as simple as the first one, but we just wanted the first dare to be easier to manage and fun to do with your friends,” Schwarz said. “The account is for acts of kindness that we want people to start doing and get recognized for.”