Students Learned About Kindness, Inclusion, And Acceptance: Unity Day At Garden City School District

GARDEN CITY, NY — Students in the Garden City School District celebrated Unity Day on Wednesday, learning about the importance of kindness, being inclusive, and standing against bullying.

Student and teacher volunteers at Garden City Middle School created a cheerful entrance for peers by lining the entrance to form a tunnel, greeting them with balloons and streamers. Band students joined in the celebration by performing, and media students recorded the morning's festivities.

GCMS had a No Place for Hate Pledge that students signed. The school also had connection and team-building activities throughout the day, such as icebreaker exercises, an anti-bullying Upstander Idol Contest, a trivia game, and an Escape the Classroom activity.

There was an assembly with special guests: Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly, Dr. Dan Fasano, and author Jen Calonita.

DA Donnelly presented the S.T.O.P. program, Dr. Fasano shared GC Cares, and Caolinta discussed the importance of kindness.

Students at Garden City High School created a tabling event that encouraged peers to stop by and write happy messages of kindness. To reinforce the positive messages, SADD and the PTA provided giveaways.

Stratford and Stewart students wrote down ways they could make their school a safer and kinder place, then chained them together as part of Project Connect.

Social Worker Kristyn DeMartinis shared a read-aloud with Stratford School students. The elementary students participated in activities that explored empathy and positive decision-making.

To help make a stance against bullying, students at Stewart School signed a pledge to "Stand Up Against Bullying." They also read "The Invisible Boy" and discussed the importance of having an inclusive school community.

Small acts of kindness can affect others, and students at Hemlock School and Homestead School learned all about this with Social Worker Tracy Martinez and School Psychologist Dina Mulstay, respectively.

Locust School took a creative approach, having students and teachers work together to spell out the word KIND.