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ASU Student Creates ‘Positive Post-It Note Day,’ Faculty, Staff and Students Spread the Love Around Campus

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By Jesse Wood

Feb. 11, 2015. In light of the recent tragedies at Appalachian State University in the past several months, sophomore Samantha Bender started a “positive post-it note” campaign.

Monday was “Positive Post-It Note Day,” and the campus community was encouraged to write something positive on post-it notes and stick them all over campus. For those who didn’t have post-it notes, Bender put up poster boards with blank post-it notes for folks to grab on the go in a number of facilities on campus.

“I think we are in need of some positivity! This is a campus-wide campaign to spread positivity to show others that they are worthy and loved,” Bender wrote on one of the poster boards. “Let’s cover this campus in positivity and be the family that we are!”

Appalachian State University supported the effort, posting the campaign on its official Facebook page and encouraging others to “join the positivity.” The event was also featured on a blog on Huffington Post.

On the “Positive Post-It Note Day” Facebook event page, more than 1,000 people said they would participate and hundreds of these post-it notes are visible on campus – on computer screens, cabinets, statues, in bathrooms, lockers, on books in the library, on walls, on ATM machines and so forth.

A snapshot of the positivity on these post-it notes:

“You are beautiful & strong”

“When everything feels like an uphill struggle, just think of the view from the top”

“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door”

“Hug More. Shout less. Hug More”

Life is tough. But so are you”

“Wake up. Kick ass. Repeat”

“Be the best version of you”

“Spring’s coming”

“Being yourself is the coolest thing you can be”

Bender, who lived in the same residence hall as Anna Marie Smith, said that she saw Smith on campus last semester all the time before Smith passed away.

“It really hurt me and I wondered if I could have done anything, if I could have just said, ‘Hey, how was your day.’ And if I could have impacted her,” Bender said.

Bender said that once she decided to see this idea through, she created a Facebook event page, shared it and went to sleep. When she woke up the next morning, 400 people noted that they would be coming and more than 1,000 people had been invited.

She said ASU administrators, such as Dean of Students J.J. Brown, and faculty members reached out to her and asked how they could help. She said the university sent out a mass email blast to the Appalachian Community about the ‘positive post-it day’ and faculty members and others provided post-it notes.

While this past Monday was supposed to be the official positive post-it note day, she said that these notes keep popping up around campus. She said that she has been going around cleaning them up at the end of the day, so the cleaning staff doesn’t have to deal with them. But each day, she arrives inside the campus facilities to find more notes. She hopes to hold a similar event day next fall.

Her idea has even spread beyond the Appalachian State University campus. She mentioned that a little girl she knows that attends an elementary school in Boone said that her school was filled with similar post-it notes saying nice things. Plus, she said that students at her old high school in Philadelphia caught wind of this event and started something similar.

Check out Sarah Weiffenbach’s photos below of the post-it notes placed around campus. Also click to these Facebook pages (here and here) to see dozens of more post-it notes that were captured around campus in the past few days.

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