During the Town Meeting Finale at Islip’s Wing Elementary School, school counselor Victoria DiOrio and school social worker Allison Rutsky talked with the children about all of the character traits they had learned this year, such as fairness, caring, honesty, respect, giving, kindness and responsibility. In preparation for the May 23 event, each Wing student in kindergarten and first grade created their own superhero and discussed the special character trait they would like to have as their superpower. First grade sisters Loralei and Waverly Lamneck chose kindness as their superpower, and later came up with a special idea on how to spread kindness to others and give back to the community, inspired by DiOrio’s reading of the book “Strictly No Elephants.”
“The book is about a boy and his tiny pet elephant,” Rutsky said. “He wanted to join the Pet Club with his elephant, but wasn’t allowed because his pet was different than the other animals. At the end of the story, the boy decided to form his own club that included all kinds of animals in all shapes and sizes, just like friends. Waverly and Loralei enjoyed the story and thought about creating their own Kindness Club that includes everyone in both of their classes. The girls invited all of the members to their house.”
“We came up with the idea of the Kindness Club so people can be kind to each other,” Waverly Lamneck said, “We wanted to be sure that the Kindness Club included everyone in our classes. First, we made invitations for the club and put it in everyone’s folders. We met two times so far at our house. The first time, we made cards for people in the hospital to help make them feel better. We also played with bubbles and chalk.”
“The second time we met, we made birthday boxes to give to the food pantry for children in need,” Loralei Lamneck said. “Each birthday box had cake mix, icing and a can of Sprite. Our mom told us that you can bake a cake with Sprite! It’s not fair if you don’t have cake for your birthday. Everyone needs sweets on their birthday. We are still thinking of ideas to do at our next meeting.”
“The hospital sent a letter to thank the Kindness Club for spreading kindness and generosity,” Rutsky said. “It is wonderful to see that Lorelai, Waverly and the Kindness Club members have generalized what they have learned from our Town Meetings at school, and chose to spread kindness in their own creative ways.”
Date Added: 6/18/2024