Head O’ Meadow Elementary School had a visitor on Monday, September 8, who helped unveil the school’s Friendship Bench.

Acacia “Tiny” Woodley of Palm Bay, Fla.,, was introduced during a morning assembly by school Principal Barbara Gasparine, and before Acacia explained why she was at the school, she shared a story.

Acacia told a story about a baby hippopotamus who befriends an old tortoise, despite having very little in common with each other at the start of their friendship.

Then Acacia, a 12-year-old eighth grader, shared why she was at the school. Acacia is the founder of Tiny Girl, Big Dream, a company with the goal of placing “Friendship Kits” in every school across the United States and Canada, according to the company’s website, TinyGirlBigDream.org.

“This is your school’s very own Friendship Bench,” Acacia said, as the curtain in the school’s cafetorium was pulled to reveal the bench, which is multicolored and has words like generosity, love, and kindness painted on it.

Acacia explained whenever a student at Head O’ Meadow is having a rough day, they can sit on the Friendship Bench. She asked everyone at the school to keep an eye on the bench for her, to notice when someone is sitting there. When someone sits there, she said, the students can learn how to help them.

She told the students that “kindness is contagious” and brought them through an exercise to reveal that everyone has more in common with others than they may think. She asked each new student at the school to stand up, before asking everyone who had ever been a new student in a school to also rise to show that everyone has been a new student in a school at some point in their lives. Later she asked students to stand to show other things they may share in common with their fellow students.

 “We’re all different in some ways,” Acacia said, after sharing that there is always someone else that knows and understands.

Each student at the school is also set to receive a bracelet with the words “I am amazing” on it, to remind them, according to Acacia, how amazing they are.

“And I never, ever, want you to forget that,” she said.

Acacia said she hopes the school will make good use of its Friendship Bench before saying, “If you see someone sitting in a Friendship Bench, take a moment to talk to them.”

Ms Gasparine said the Friendship Bench fits “right in” with Head O’ Meadow’s endeavors through the school district’s Character Tree and CARES model.

The bench will be placed on the school’s back playground, according to Ms Gasparine.

Head O’ Meadow School Psychologist Geoff Millenson also presented a short example, with the help of two students, of how students can use the Friendship Bench. While one student sat the on the bench, Mr Millenson and another student, who were pretending to be outside on the playground tossing a ball, went up to the student on the bench and asked him to join in their game.

As a final note for the assembly, Ms Gasparine read another part of the wording on the Friendship Bench, “Friendship is the golden ribbon that ties the world together.”