Sammie Vance, a fourth
grader, lives in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Last
year, as part of a school assignment, Sammie drew a comic strip to offer a
solution for loneliness and inclusion.
Featured in the drawings were “Buddy Benches” so “If somebody’s lonely
or if they’re new to the school and they don’t have anybody to play with, they
can sit on the bench. If other people
see them on the bench they’ll come up to them and ask them to play. And they can play together.” Sammie wasn’t content to just draw the comic
strip. With the encouragement and help
from her mother, Heidi, and other students at Haley Elementary School, the
students began collecting plastic caps so they could have buddy benches made for
their school. Since it takes 400 pounds
of recycled plastic to make one bench, it became a community effort to collect
enough plastic caps. With all that was
gathered, there was enough to make three benches for the Haley Elementary
playground with enough left over to share with other schools.
It all began in response
to an assignment in Sally Rusk’s 8th grade leadership class at
Inglewood Middle School in Sammamish, Washington. Belle Schmidt decided she wanted to make a
difference by greeting students at the front door of the school each
morning. According to her teacher,
“Belle is choosing to do it because she thinks it will make other people happy,
feel better, feel more included, feel more loved.” Beginning in January, Belle arrived at the school
by 7 a.m., held the door open and greeted her peers with a smile and comment as
they entered the building. After a week,
Belle was joined by 7th grader Abby McNeer who also wanted to help
welcome the students each morning. They
each hold a door open for the students, welcome them, ask questions, give high
fives, and speak compliments and words of encouragement. One girl commented, “I think it just makes
you feel like it’s going to be a good day when you walk in.” Belle will be in high school next year, but
Abby plans to continue the morning greeting tradition.
Lily DuBose had just
started third grade when Hurricane Harvey hit in 2017. As the storm intensified, Lily and her mother
took refuge in the closet. As they
watched the reports of the hurricane on an iPad, Lily was troubled and
concerned about all the children who were forced to leave their homes without
their toys. She knew she couldn’t give
away furniture or houses, but she could help by giving away her toys. Lily’s first gifting was a Lego set to a child
in her neighborhood. She decided to
contact her Nana to request her help with donations and also asked her mother to
post something on Facebook. Soon their
entire dining room was covered with toys to give away. As word spread, Lily was even interviewed by
a news station. Before long, 5,000 toys
had been collected and distributed to 200 kids.
After the toys were all given away, Lily didn’t want to stop the
project. Her mom and dad helped set up
“Lily’s Toy Box” as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization so she could continue
gifting, toys, books, and other items to children in need.
What a blessing that
adults came alongside the students to support, encourage, and help make a way
for their suggestions to become realities and make a difference in their
schools and communities. Whether it’s
cheering someone on, playing, or making the calls, may we each do our part to
be a positive, contributing part of the team this week.
So
in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums
up the Law and the Prophets.
Matthew 7:12
Don’t
let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the
believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.
1 Timothy 4:12
Do
nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above
yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests
of the others.
Philippians 2:3-4
So
whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
I Corinthians 10:31
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