Meet Kansas middle school student Mary Krieger. Mary is the anonymous creator of “Kindness Counts”, a program that encourages kids to do kind acts.

Instead of a birthday party and presents, Mary asked her mom Jackie Millin to put the small sum into her program. “Kindness Counts” will provide teachers with prizes and gift certificates to reward students for extraordinary acts of kindness.

“We don’t really have much money, but even at that I can already look around and see that already I have too much stuff that I don’t really need,” she explained. “I wanted to try to give back and give to someone else.”

With donations from friends and family, Mary was able to raise $600 and presented her proposal to the school principal, Myron Melton.

“It was really a neat idea,” Melton said. “She did a really nice presentation and was also very formal.”

Mary had only one catch: she wished to remain anonymous. She explained that she didn’t want any unwanted attention. She simply had seen bullying at the school and has also been a victim of bullying herself.

“I was hoping, if I did this, then when I did see the change kids, would start doing nicer things,” Mary said. “When I did get to see the change, it was probably the best feeling that I ever had. Because that was one of the things I wanted for my birthday, and I would actually get to see the difference and see the kids with the smiles on their faces. It just put a smile on my face.”

The result of Kindness Counts? “It’s been a huge morale boost,” Melton said. “We are just so proud of her.”

While she initially wanted to reward kids for good behavior, I think she should give herself the biggest prize of all. Good luck, Mary!