Roaring Brook Goes Orange for National Anti-Bullying Day

What do the Hokey Pokey, The Cha-Cha Slide and the color orange have in common?

All three were elements of Roaring Brook School's National Unity Day Celebration Wednesday, a country-wide initiative to come together, be kind and prevent bullying.

Students and faculty wore orange in recognition of the anti-bullying message. Physical education teacher and student council advisor Holly Rzonca led the crowd in dances to the two songs on the basketball courts behind the Avon elementary school at the end if the school day.

" In order to do a dance, you have to be in unison," Roaring Brook Principal Crisanne Colgan said, adding that it was a fun way for students and faculty to connect, have fun and smile together.

She said that kindness starts in the home and in the early years of school.

"I like it. We consider ourselves a family at Roaring Brook," she said. "It was a chance to feel like a family with the whole nation"

Aidan Mahoney, a fourth-grader and Roaring Brook student council president, led the students in a pledge not to bully.

"I think it's a great thing to do," he said of National Unity Day. "It really brings schools and communities."

Mahoney said that when he sees someone who being bullied or who is by themselves, he talks to he or she to see what's wrong and invites the kid to play with him.

"I like to look at the kids who don't have as much fortune as we are," Mahoney said, adding that he often donates to people who don't have a lot of money.

Classes made orange chains of paper to promote this sort of kindness, writing messages about compassion, friendship, helping others and anti-bullying statements.

Student council advisor and teacher Melinda Krusz said that most classes also read along with a video of "Spookly the Square Pumpkin," a suggested reading for National Unity Day about the struggles a bullied pumpkin faces because he is different.

Fourth grade teacher Gigi Kotler brought National Unity Day to Roaring Brook after reading an article about National Unity Day in the "Time for Kids" magazine.

"I thought it was a great idea for student council to take on because bullying is certainly a topic we talk about and I though it would be a unifying event for the school," she said.