EAST LONGMEADOW – Over the course of this school week, Birchland Park Middle School, Mapleshade Elementary School and Mountain View Elementary School all took part in “Start With Hello Week.” This program was started by Sandy Hook Promise, an organization that was launched in 2013 by 16 families whose children and spouses were killed at the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut.

Sandy Hook Promise’s mission is to, “prevent gun-related deaths due to crime, suicide and accidental discharge so that no other parent experiences the senseless, horrific loss of their child,” according to the organizations website sandyhookpromise.org. The website explains that over 3,065,892 people have made the “Sandy Hook promise.”

Since their group’s inception in 2013, Sandy Hook Promise has created Start With Hello Week as a way to create a culture of inclusion that values each individual within schools, students and staff alike. In August, East Longmeadow Public Schools (ELPS) teachers, administrators and counselors attended a day of training with the Sandy Hook Promise organization to assess how well the schools were doing in terms of keeping children from feeling alone or isolated. From that, the schools made plans for improvement moving forward for school years to come.

At Birchland, Principal Timothy Allen told Reminder Publishing there would be a series of events over the course of the week. On Sept. 24, the school watched a 20-minute video describing the Start With Hello campaign. Allen said the video details how to start with hello when students see others who may be feeling alone and explains the impact this can have on both the person who is alone and the person who reaches out. Following the video, teachers led a 10–minute conversation around the campaign.

On Sept. 25 and 26, students at Birchland will have the opportunity to take a pledge in the cafeteria to reach out to people that they don’t know who they believe might need a friend, and students can take “#startwithhello” selfies to post on social media.

Continuing the week, on Sept. 27 students and staff will watch a video that consists of members of the student body and faculty saying hello in the many languages that re represented at Birchland Park. From there, the school will watch the video and then take part in an activity where students practice having these conversations.

Finally, on Sept. 28 students and staff are encouraged to wear green to honor the Sandy Hook Promise and to always remember to “start with hello.”

Allen hopes that these activities in the ELPS will create a raised awareness within students and that “they have the power to reach out to others and help them feel welcome and appreciated,” he continued, “Middle schoolers, as we all know, are often experts at understanding the world from their own perspective. This week is meant to build their empathy to see the world from the perspective of others around them.”

Each day at Mountain View Elementary over the morning announcements students will read short quotes about friends or being friendly. On the intercom on both Sept. 24 and Sept. 28 there will be a mash up of “hello” songs played. In addition, bulletin boards around the school will be decorated with drawings of “Hello” in different languages.

On Sept. 24, students were encouraged to wear green. From 8 a.m. to 8:15 a.m. staff stood at their doors and at the car and bus lines with “start with hello” signs. Staff and students wore name tags that stated, “Hello, my name is…”

Similar to Birchland, Mountain View watched a 20-minute “Start With Hello” presentation, however the presentation was done by East Longmeadow High School students. Additionally, Guidance Counselor Norma Campbell will introduce the Alex Blais Memorial Buddy Bench, which was donated by St. Michael’s Church Religious Education Office in honor of the recently passed Alex Blais who was a student at Birchland Park who suffered from brain cancer.

On Sept. 25, Mountain View students were introduced to the Start With Hello student contest, which is in the form of written, spoken or visual art. The schoolmate scavenger hunt took place for a half hour on Sept. 25 where students were able to walk around and try to find a person to fit descriptions, such as someone who was born in another state. This promotes students talking to others that they may not normally speak to and learning more about one another.

Finally on Sept. 28 students will participate in “wear your favorite t–shirt day.” Additionally, students will be randomly assigned to lunch tables in order to make friends with different students. Each table will be provided with conversation starters.

At Mapleshade Elementary School the school kicked off with the Start With Hello assembly. Sept. 24 was labeled as, “Hey Day” where students were given name tags to wear, encouraging them to say hello to someone new. At lunch students mixed it up and sat at new tables.

On Sept. 25 at Mapleshade the spirit day was labeled, “Fave Shirt Day” where students could wear their favorite shirt, encouraging students to ask questions about their peers’ favorite shirt.

“Wear Your Kicks for Kindness” took place on Sept. 26, where students wore their favorite shoes or decorated old ones. This was in the hopes that kids would ask one another about where their peers’ shoes have traveled. Also on the 26th, the students will have another lunch mix it up day.

On Sept. 27 Mapleshade did “Spreading the Smiles Day” where students could wear anything that they felt spread the smiles, being a smiley face or emoji shirt or anything in yellow. On this day, students were encouraged to do kind acts including but not limited to holding the door for someone, writing a thank you note or asking someone to play.

Finally, on Sept. 28 Mapleshade showed Sandy Hook spirit with “green day” along with the other schools and will have their final lunch mix it up day.

“It’s always effective when we as a school can all focus on one initiative to try and show our students a different and more productive way to help others. Start With Hello week is our first school–wide focus of the year and it is a great way for us to start the conversation of helping those around us who might not be feeling connected,” Allen said.

To learn more about Start With Hello week and Sandy Hook www.sandyhookpromise.orgPromise, go to www.sandyhookpromise.org.