Hamilton grandmother of two Debbie Onkst believed she had an encounter with an angel last week.

She was at the Meijer store one evening, standing in line to get a prescription filled when she noticed a little girl moving through the crowd with a stack of papers in her arms.

“My first thought was that she was selling something, so I was getting ready to buy because that’s what you do to help out the children,” she said. “But the papers she had were hearts that she had cut out.”

The little girl gave her one of the hearts, which had the words “Be Kind” written on it.

“She said she was handing them out in honor of the children who were killed at Sandy Hook,” Onkst said. “I said, ‘That’s wonderful, I’m really glad you’re doing that.’ “

“She didn’t say anything to me, but just smiled so sweetly, and I promised her that I would keep it forever,” she said. “When I got home, I told my husband that I might have had an encounter with an angel.”

It turns out, however, that the angel was Haylie Morningstar, a third grade student at Ridgeway Elementary School, who was taking part in a school-wide “26 Acts of Kindness” initiative to honor the 26 lives that were lost last month in the Connecticut school shooting.

Ridgeway Principal Kathy Wagonfield said that she got the idea from Ann Curry, the NBC News correspondent, who began a Facebook and Twitter campaign in response to the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook to help people overcome the gamut of emotions the event created.

On her blog, Curry wrote, “If you do good, you feel good. It’s the most selfish thing you can do. Right now, this country wants to heal. I think the only thing comforting in the face of a tragedy like this is to do something good with it if you can. Be a part of that wave.”

Wagonfield said that she decided to not take any immediate action after the tragedy and did not make any announcements or plan to speak to the students about the event.

“We felt like it was up to the parents and we crossed our fingers that they wouldn’t come back to school on Monday scared,” she said. “I sent an email out to teachers to tell them how to respond if (students) asked about it.”

The email made suggestions about using writing or art to help the students express themselves, and when she read about Curry’s 26 Acts of Kindness in 26 Days initiative she thought it would be a good school-wide project to take on.

She sent home a letter with each student explaining the project and offering suggestions for acts of kindness that young children could do, from picking up litter or opening the door for someone to giving colorful stickers to someone or making a donation of items to the Cincinnati Drop Inn Center.

Each student was also given a chart to record their acts of kindness.

Every day until the end of the month, selected students are given the opportunity to address the school during morning announcements to talk about the acts of kindness they’ve done.

“They will bring in their charts at the end of the 26 days and we’ll plaster them down the hall,” Wagonfield said.

Ridgeway parent Sylvia Hammons said that her daughter Darian was inspired to do a randon act of kindness at McDonald’s by paying for someone’s meal in the drive-thru, even though they generated some funny looks from the cashiers on duty.

“We said just to tell them it’s a random act of kindness and enjoy their evening,” Hammons said. “Darian smiled from ear to ear she was so excited, and as we were walking out to our car, she said, ‘It feels good to do nice things doesn’t it mom?’ ”