Prince William SPCA sponsors 13,000 gift subscriptions of the magazine Kind News for local elementary school classrooms. The publication encourages good character with an emphasis on kindness to animals, respect for the environment, preservation of natural habitats and good citizenship. Included in each issue are articles, activities, short stories, projects, puzzles and celebrity interviews. With school budgets being cut, there are no funds available to teachers for programs like this. Our community suffers when children abuse animals, show no regard for the environment or care little about other people around them. Kind News educates and inspires students. Animal issues are very important to young people.

This is a fun, cross-curricular teaching tool that encourages kids to read and write and covers many of the National Education Standards for the major subject areas. Teachers can readily incorporate it into subjects like math, science, reading, and language arts or simply hand out copies to students to enjoy during free time or at home. Kind News is published monthly throughout the school year and is delivered to classrooms in bundles of 28 copies with an accompanying teacher’s guide. It comes in two  editions to accommodate a range of reading levels. Teachers may change the edition they receive at any time. In 2022, 500 classrooms with 13,000 students participated in the program with no cost to the schools. The cost for Prince William SPCA to sponsor this program is $13,000 annually.

This program is offered free of charge to Prince William County, Manassas City and Manassas Park elementary school classrooms. Registration takes place in April and May of each year. Advance reservations are required and space is limited.