STANDISH – Last fall, Jessica Ciampi, a 2013 graduate of Bonny Eagle High School, had grown frustrated with the messages all around her regarding bullying. They told her and other students mostly what not to do.

When Michael J. Chase, founder of The Kindness Center, based in Biddeford, visited the school early in the school year and presented on the topic of performing random acts of kindness for strangers, something clicked for Ciampi, and she knew she wanted to make a positive difference.

Inspired but not knowing exactly how to pull it off, Ciampi, who was also the class president, went to her guidance counselors and asked them to guide her.

“She was feeling incredibly inspired and wanting to do something to make our school a better place, and the world a better place in general, she came to one of my coworkers here and said, ‘I want to do something and I gotta figure out how to make this work,’” said counselor Kay Porter. “So we figured out a plan, but it’s really she who designed the whole thing.”

After consulting with administration, the plan was to hold events outside of school based on Chase’s suggestion to perform random acts of kindness. While the group isn’t an official club, it goes by several informal names, including Project Kindness, or the Kindness Crew.

Ciampi, a Standish resident, and 12 of her fellow seniors planned Dec. 11 for their first day of kindness activities. The students went to the Center for Grieving Children in Portland and decorated the building with paper snowflakes. They served lunch at Preble Street Resource Center and spent the afternoon at the Maine Mall, where they handed out candy canes and flowers to show kindness to random shoppers.

“And we stuck tags on [the candy and flowers], which said, ‘Be the change you wish to see in the world,’ and handed them out,” Ciampi said. “Everyone was so busy shopping around Christmas it was good for people to slow down and take a minute and be like, ‘Oh, hey, this person is being nice to me.’”

Not content to rest on her laurels, and also responding to students from other classes wanting to join the effort, Ciampi spent the rest of the school year organizing several other Project Kindness events.

In February, Ciampi designed an entire day centered on the elementary grades at Bonny Eagle, getting the Kindness Crew to perform lively skits and an informational session explaining what kindness is and how to be more kind to their classmates.

The point of Project Kindness, Ciampi said, is partly in response to the anti-bullying message. While kids are drilled with messages telling them what not to do, Ciampi believes a positive message of being kind is a better approach.

“It’s not so much the anti-bullying, or anti-this or anti-that, it’s pushing the positive. That’s what we’re trying to do,” she said.

In the spring, the Kindness Crew went to Operation Tribute’s headquarters in Gorham, where they wrapped Christmas presents in April for families of military children who request them. They also went to Partners for World Health in Scarborough, a nonprofit that collects discarded medical supplies and distributes them to the Third World.

The crew, which numbered into the few dozen, also spent a day in Portland’s Old Port passing out flowers and candy and handwritten cards with inspiring messages on them.

“We’re just trying to prove a point that it doesn’t take much to make a difference in the world,” Porter said. “It took one person to say, I want to do this. Jessica came to us and said help me, and we did. It was simple stuff. And it was all her. We were just there to do the paperwork.”

Ciampi’s founding of Project Kindness at Bonny Eagle, which will continue into next school year since a junior has already stepped up to direct it, also impresses Chase, founder of The Kindness Center.

“Jessica Ciampi is one of the most exceptional young people I’ve ever met. She is a shining example of what the world needs most: love, kindness, compassion and positive leadership,” Chase said. “When I consider a succinct way to sum up Jessica’s approach to life, the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. immediately come to mind: ‘Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: ‘What are you doing for others?’’ Jessica’s daily creed of putting others first is a wonderful reminder of why each of us exists . . . and that the path to authentic success lies in the heart.”

Ciampi, who’s headed to University of Southern Maine in the fall and is undecided on her major, is proud of her legacy at Bonny Eagle. The graduate who said during her speech at commencement that she struggled with shyness as a student, said the effort has helped many others as well as herself to remember what’s important in life.

“It’s going on next year, and I won’t be too far away so I’ll be able to help them out with stuff,” she said. “And that makes me feel good. The whole thing about it was to create your legacy and have that be one of kindness, and that’s something I wanted to leave behind. So having it still going is pretty cool.”

Jessica Ciampi