Fifth and Sixth Grade Students Attend Kindness Retreat
Monday September 19 the Elgin Public 5th and 6th grade students attended a Kindness Retreat held at the Stuart Auditorium in Stuart, NE. The students joined approximately 100 other 5th and 6th graders from Lynch, Niobrara, West Boyd, Stuart and Ewing for a fun filled, high energy day of activities and speakers promoting “kindness” at school. The program was delivered by Youth Frontiers, a nonprofit organization that has been providing programs to schools for over 20 years that build positive school communities and help young people realize the importance of respecting themselves and others. Their vision is to change the way young people treat each other in the hallway, lunch line, and classroom of every school in America so that today’s young people can make tomorrow’s world better. Last year, Youth Frontiers worked with nearly 100,000 students and educators throughout the country. The Youth Frontiers Kindness Retreat helps build a more caring school community by engaging students in activities that demonstrate the painful effects of bullying and emphasize the value of kindness. Elementary school students experience the positive effect of the kindness boomerang during a high-energy day with classmates. Students learn that, like the golden rule, if they want to catch kindness, they've got to throw the kindness boomerang out there! Also attending were several National Honor Society students who served as group leaders and facilitators for the day. Helping out were senior Nash Schindler, and juniors Nick Heithoff, Andrew Heithoff and Blake Anderson. The group was sponsored by Mrs. Bode, Guidance Counselor. Throughout the weeks and months ahead the 5th and 6th grade students will be doing follow up activities to reinforce and build the character trait of “kindness” in our school.
