When you envision a playground, there are many things that come to mind—swing sets, monkey bars, slides, and jungle gyms.
For the Wethersfield K-Kids, their vision of a playground isn’t complete without a “buddy” bench.
“The idea was that someone feeling lonely or down could sit on the bench,” said Sue VanDeVelde, a fifth grade teacher and sponsor of the K-Kids “and one of the K-Kids would see them and join them. The kids loved the idea, so we started looking for the bench.”
The K-Kids, started by the Kiwanis Club of Kewanee, is a group of 4th, 5th, and 6th graders who have committed to making a difference in their school.
They are similar to their sister high school group, Key Club, and hold similar ideals, though the group was established at Wethersfield in early 2015.
Under the direction of VanDeVelde, the K-Kids have proved a successful and beneficial organization for the elementary.
Shortly after the club began, the Buddy Bench was discussed.
When asked how the idea came about, VanDeVelde explained that it stemmed from the K-Kids pledge.
At each meeting, the members of the group start out by reciting the K-Kids promise, which states, "I will show respect toward my environment and I will try to make the world a better place in which to live."
With these words in mind, the K-Kids began to brainstorm.
Recess is the center of childhood memories and the best part of a young child’s day. Or at least, it should be.
In order to make the world a better place in which to live, the K-Kids wanted to first make the playground a better place to play.
Their search led them to Green Tree Plastics, a company that recycles bottle caps into brand new treasures. The company was selected because its mission fit perfectly into the club’s pledge to care for the environment.
With the foundation of the project laid, the K-Kids went to work.
After asking the school to help participate, bottle caps were collected, sorted, and bagged from the end of the 2015-2016 school year all the way through the 2016-2017 school year.
Then, the bench was ordered.
VanDeVelde described how her husband “drove 16, 55-gallon bags of bottle caps to Evansville, Ind., to exchange them for the bench that we ordered.”
The Buddy Bench arrived on Jan. 5.
The K-Kids are beyond pleased with the final product.
“It makes me feel happy that our school can make it so everybody can have a friend at recess,” said Kendall Vincent, a 5th grade representative.
Even though the bench is in their possession, the project isn’t finished yet.
Now the K-Kids have to make the hard decision of where the bench will be placed, and then decide how they will introduce the concept of the Buddy Bench to the rest of their elementary classes.
Whatever they decide, their efforts will benefit the entire school community.
