A Breakfast with Buddies Surprise
When the seniors sat down at their classroom desks to start the day on Friday, they probably did not expect to be greeted with the enthusiastic kindness and cheer that soon arrived. Their fifth grade buddies surprised them with a special delivery during Breakfast with Buddies that brought big smiles to their faces.
After a busy season of submitting college applications and on their last day of classes before exams, their younger Wildcat friends showed up singing carols and handing out stockings filled with treats. Those same stockings had been hanging in the senior lounge, and that had inspired some of the fifth graders with an idea.
The stockings had been visible from the dining room of the Wilson Student Center, and after seeing them there during lunch fifth graders Madeline Johrendt and Brooklyn Uber asked if it was possible for their class to put something in them. They noticed they were empty and wondered who was going to fill them. They thought it would be nice for the fifth grade to fill the stockings as an act of kindness for their older C.A.R.E.S. Crews Buddies.
"Mrs. Hawley, what are those stockings for hanging in the senior lounge?" asked Madeline. "Some of my classmates and I were wondering if it would be OK if we stuck little treats in them for each of our C.A.R.E.S. Crews Buddies. It looks like there is one for each senior. Could we do that? Could we? Could WE?!"
From there, the students suggested items they would like to bring in, and then fifth grade teachers Mrs. Ashley Reid and Mrs. Amy Caputa got the class parents involved and they received an amazing response. By Thursday, there was enough for each senior to have a stocking stuffed full of goodies! That afternoon, the teachers sneaked into the senior lounge and grabbed the stockings. The students filled them Friday morning and then delivered them to the senior classrooms and individually to their buddies. Some of these older and younger buddies have been paired up since the fifth graders came to Westchester as pre-K or kindergarten students!
The eagerness and the initiative that these fifth graders took to brighten their senior buddies amid the stresses of this season in their lives just blew me away. This was an awesome way to be in service to others, and I am just so proud of the fifth graders for looking for ways to spread some cheer. This is an inspiration for "Do Good December" and is right in line with the Lower School character word for the month of December, SERVICE -- lending a hand to help someone else.
Blair Hawley
Head of Lower School
