The Board of Education started its agenda on Tuesday, October 18, with a Celebration of Excellence, honoring Newtown Middle School seventh grader Jeremy Voegeli.etsy.com, search AGPLoveWins.

Jeremy recently created a poster of "180 Ways That Love Wins At School."

NMS Principal Thomas Einhorn said that Jeremy's work "shows each and every day at school you can make a difference. Some of the suggestions are those that will help others, but many also are ways to help one's self. This is an amazing gift for our school community."

He explained that since Jeremy has created the posters, they have been put up all over the middle school.

"We are so incredibly proud of Jeremy and this incredible gift," Mr Einhorn concluded.

Jeremy had been inspired to create his "180 Ways That Love Wins At School" poster for the Ana Grace Project after remembering a talk that Nelba Mérquez-Greene and her husband, Jimmy Greene, made in his fifth grade class. They visited the group of students on their late daughter Ana's birthday and spoke about their daughter and the work they do with their foundation.

Ms Mérquez-Greene said, "I think it is really important to mention that because it tells you that, number one, we can't stop talking about what happened here, and it's important to talk about our grief process. And, number two, when we give kids proper information and tools and support they can turn their grief into something incredibly positive."

She expressed how thrilled she was with what Jeremy created and informed the school board that his work has already been brought to 13 states and Canada. People can purchase the posters on

Board members congratulated the young kindness advocate, including Superintendent of Schools Joseph V. Erardi, Jr.

Dr Erardi said, "I think it is just amazing... Jeremy took this on as a project. You can see the delicacy of this, the intelligence of this, and the time that went into this."

He explained how detailed Jeremy's work was color coding the poster and coming up with different categories for the "180 Ways That Love Wins At School."

"If you take the time and read one through 180, you are going to see that in front of you this evening is a very thoughtful, a very meaningful, and a very intelligent young man," Dr Erardi said.

Board of Education member Keith Alexander also praised Jeremy. He said, "We pay attention when our students do something extraordinary… You've picked up something that's very important to the whole town, which is that love wins. We are very proud of you for coming up with this entire system that people can then use across the country. I think that is fantastic."