When Kristina Ulmer lost her younger sister Katie Ulmer in a tragic car accident, she was left with a purse filled with tip money Katie had earned that morning. She did not realize that that moment would eventually lead Kristina to start a classroom challenge, impacting hundreds of students and strangers alike. Kristina, an English teacher at Hatboro-Horsham High School in Pennsylvania, was called to the accident scene along with her parents, reported 6abc Philadelphia. In the wreckage, she asked an officer to retrieve Katie’s purse, which still held over $100 in cash, as reported by The Washington Post.
“I pulled it out of her purse and I thought, ‘What am I going to do with this money?’ and I knew she would want to do something good with it,” Kristina said. For a long time, she kept the purse tucked away in her cabinet, unsure of how to use the money to honor her sister’s generous spirit. In 2018, she found the answer while teaching “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury, a novel that explores a world where people are consumed by screens and disconnected from real life. She wanted her students to understand the importance of empathy and human connection. That was when she decided to take her sister’s tip money, exchange it for $20 bills, and hand one to each student, asking them to perform an act of kindness and document their experience.
The project, which became known as the $20 Kindness Challenge, gained momentum. Students found unique ways to use the money, from donating to homeless shelters to leaving generous tips for restaurant servers. Some made homemade treats for animals at a local shelter, while others bought toiletries and food for unhoused people. One student, while visiting family in the Midwest, bought doughnuts and handed them out to strangers on a street corner. The experience was so meaningful that she has continued the tradition every year. After the first semester, word of the challenge spread beyond the classroom.
More people started hearing about it, and soon, community members began donating to help keep the project going. Kristina would arrive at school to find $20 bills left in her mailbox from anonymous supporters. Since its inception, her students have completed more than 350 acts of kindness in Katie’s memory, and the school has now set up a fund to accept donations. Kristina compiles students’ video reflections into a montage so they can see how their small efforts have made a difference, as shared by Hatboro-Horsham School District. The experience has changed the way many students think about kindness…