Scotch Plains Highlights
Written by: Rory Panter
Each year at HI-STEP Scotch Plains, we have a week dedicated specifically to helping others. Our goal is to help our students develop their own sense of empathy while assisting others in the community. Throughout the week, we discussed the idea of “charity” and why it is important to give back to the community to assist those who are in need.
As a part of our Charity Week, we held a Walk-A-Thon to raise money for The Seeing Eye, which is a local organization based out of Morristown, New Jersey. The Seeing Eye is a philanthropic organization whose mission is to enhance the independence, dignity, and self-confidence of blind people through the use of Seeing Eye®dogs. Family and friends pledged money for HI-STEP students and staff to participate in the Walk-A-Thon.
We were honored to have Don MacGowan (Volunteer Program Coordinator) and Marty Nusbaum (Volunteer) visit us at HI-STEP Scotch Plains with two adorable puppies (Journey and Friday). Don spoke to us about the importance of having trained guide dogs to assist blind individuals and explained to us the training process. Don, Marty, Journey, and Friday even joined us for our walk. Not only was the day informative and fun, but HI-STEP Scotch Plains proudly raised $1,000, which will be used to help sponsor a future Seeing Eye dog!
Pennington Highlights
Written by: Rebecca Schulman
Last week, the students at HI-STEP Pennington were POWER-ed Up with Kindness! The students learned about respect, friendship, and caring for others during daily group activities. Each day students participated in activities that promote friendship and kindness among themselves and the community.
As part of our week of kindness, we collected and created materials for the charity: Lala and Mimi’s Pajama Project. During the week, the students made blankets and pillow cases for other children in need. In addition, we collected donations of pajamas. Our kindness week culminated with a visit from Lala and Mimi (and their twin brothers and mother) to talk to us about how and why they started Lala and Mimi’s Pajama Project when they were just in fourth grade. Lala & Mimi’s Pajama Project aims to provide basic bedtime comfort for all children in NJ by giving new pajamas to children ages newborn to 18. They talked about the ripple effect of kindness, which the students at HI-STEP had been learning about and demonstrating all week! We are so proud that our families and staff of HI-STEP Pennington were able to donate three boxes full of pajamas!
Marlton Highlights
Written by: Amy Golden
At HI-STEP in Marlton, we kicked off our Kindness Challenge by having students make booklets to keep track of kind and thoughtful activities they participated in throughout the week. They worked hard to pay kindness forward!
As a group, HI-STEP staff and students decided to take on two charity projects. Our social skills lessons emphasized empathy and perspective taking, so we promoted helping others in need. Students collected gently used clothing and books to donate to other children and also made cards for a special girl who is facing significant health challenges.
Some highlights of the week included creative arts activities that focused on our theme for the week. Students made ‘sweet statements’ lollipops out of Model Magic. They were asked to think of positive self-statements to practice kindness to themselves, using “I am” and “I can” statements, and they wrote these on the lollipops. We also made, “Gifts of Kindness.” Each student got a gift bag, and we filled these bags with compliments. Students took turns writing out compliments for each other and also shared them in the gift bags. Additionally, we worked on creating kindness rocks, painted rocks displaying positive statements. Once finished, we placed these in the school garden for others to find. This idea was inspired by the “kindness rocks project” (http://thekindnessrocksproject.com/).
Our students participated in spirit days to celebrate our theme by dressing in a variety of fun styles. We dreamt of kindness by wearing pajamas, let kindness shine in bright clothes, teamed up for kindness in favorite team shirts, and more. The students were full of spirit and reminded of our shared goals.
