GREENFIELD — Promptly at 9 a.m., all 250 students of the Discovery School at Four Corners in Greenfield flooded outside to the playground and circled around the school’s new “Buddy Bench.”
The idea is simple: if a student is feeling lonely at recess, and would like someone to talk to or play with, they can sit on the “Buddy Bench” as a cue to other students that they should ask him or her to play.
The meaning of the bench and its beginnings were explained during a ceremony at Four Corners School Friday morning, which was attended by all 14 classrooms, Principal Suzanne Sullivan, Greenfield Public School District Superintendent Jordana Harper and the family of 10-year-old Jackson Caron, the brains behind the bench.
It all began when Jackson’s mother, Katie Caron, showed him a video of another school where a Buddy Bench had already been implemented. In fact, the Buddy Bench is a worldwide movement rooted in Germany.
“I showed it to Jackson and he said, ‘I want to do this,’” Katie Caron said. That was when Jackson was in second grade.
Katie Caron helped her son to write a speech, which he presented to the Parent Teacher Organization. With the idea a go, Jackson and his family set to fundraising, organizing a can and bottle drive and launching a GoFundMe account online.
“It’s been two years now,” Jackson told the audience of students and teachers during the ceremony. “We worked hard and we got it here.”
The fundraising was a success, with the GoFundMe account alone raising $840.
Jackson explained that because there was so much money left after purchasing a bench for Four Corners, “we decided to put a Buddy Bench at all the public schools in Greenfield.”
Two weeks ago, Greenfield’s first Buddy Bench was installed at Four Corners. Jackson was able to choose the spot, and wrote his name in the concrete beside it.
“This will be a great way for us to remember that Jackson got this started,” Principal Suzanne Sullivan said.
“This project was just so student-driven from the start and I’m so proud of Jackson,” Sullivan continued.
Jackson, she said, saw the importance of bringing the bench to other schools, making a presentation at Federal Street School. It has also been arranged for Jackson to present the idea at the Newton School.
Greenfield Public School District Superintendent Jordana Harper said that she thinks Jackson’s Buddy Bench idea is “a great example of why we need older students” to act as role models for their younger classmates to follow.
Katie Caron added that Jackson’s Buddy Bench idea teaches others that everyone is capable of doing something to make a difference.
“As a culture, we’re struggling with the concept that we can’t make a difference, ‘I’m just me,’” she said. “When, really, we can make a difference.”