Bench helps to connect buddies

Two women have made it easier for children to make friends on the playground at Redkey Elementary School.

Emily Reynolds, an occupational therapist for Jay School Corporation, mentioned to speech/language pathologist Shalee Myron that the school should get a Buddy Bench and the idea took off from there.

Reynolds and Myron assist some of the same students and share a room together, and brought up the idea in a meeting with principal Jan McGalliard.

“I just remember them talking about it,” McGalliard said. “They just kind of took it, ran and made it happen.”

Buddy Benches are placed on school playgrounds for children to sit on when they are in need of a playmate.

“We have a lot of kids who don’t have other kids to play with,” Myron said. “They don’t necessarily have the skills to go ask someone so (Reynolds) threw that out there as an idea.”

Myron researched a Buddy Bench at BuddyBench.org and posted the project on the DonorsChoose.org website in an effort to raise money for the purchase. A total of $750 was given from Myron’s family and friends and an anonymous gift of $260 came from someone in Valparaiso.

After getting the bench, it was in Myron’s classroom while waiting to be safely mounted on the kindergarten through second grade playground at Redkey Elementary.

“Emily and I did a lot of role play and talking about it with the kids that are down there … usually … kids who have, like, language impairment or some other things that would likely need it,” Myron said.

Myron also did demonstrations in kindergarten, first and second grade classrooms to help students understand the purpose of the bench.

She, Reynolds and two student teachers performed a skit that Gibson wrote, during a Reading Across America convocation for the entire student body.

“Shalee did a lot of work with the kids too, just modeling how to use it and had some role playing,” McGalliard added.

Children are taught to think what they want to do and who they want to play with and if they can’t find the words they can sit on the Buddy Bench.

“If you’re sitting on the Buddy Bench, someone else knows that they need to come ask you to play,” Myron said.

When children are then asked to play, they are encouraged to say “yes” and try something new.

“There’s always kids congregated around there and I think its had a very positive reception,” McGalliard said.

All the children in kindergarten through second grade have written thank you notes to the donors.

Myron has posted another project on DonorsChoose to get a Buddy Bench for the third through fifth grade playground at Redkey and one for the playground at Bloomfield Elementary, where she also works.