It has begun…….
I have been chomping at the bit, waiting patiently to share with you some phenomenal things that are happening in our lives right now. Where do I even begin?
I will start by saying, that since last spring, I have had a heavy heart knowing that Logan was finishing up his last year at the school that I teach. The school where everybody knows his name, his personality, his learning style, etc. So I guess I began having somewhat of an “empty nest” feeling, if you will, that he would be leaving and entering into middle school, where perhaps only about 25% of the students would know him. And truthfully, I was actually happy that he would finally get to attend a different school, as I wanted to be able to let the kite string go. However, being that he is not the “typical” kid who is “just going off to middle school and growing up,” but rather a uniquely, God-designed young man who was born with Apert Syndrome, burdened me. Knowing how shy and introverted he is, I feared the worst would happen: kids would stare, point, snicker, whisper, or even make fun of him because he looks different; and I feared he would be isolated, or isolate himself in order to cope with whatever he would be dealing with. This sounds very pessimistic of me, but as a mom, I have to face the reality of it in order to advocate and be proactive for my son. First impressions and initial experiences, especially in school, can make or break the mood for the entire year. This sparked a fire in me. Since I had previously read the book Wonder to Logan’s class at the end of the school year, I had an idea. I took my ideas to the communications director who is also head of the anti-bullying projects for my school district and she was very interested. The gist of my ideas, was basically to try to mesh a choose kind pledge (a pledge encouraged from the book Wonder) with our anti-bullying month. Since August, we have been working along with the district counselors and curriculum directors, and to say the least, this project has become bigger and better than I ever imagined! Everyone is so supportive, and are really taking this and running with it! I cannot wait until the “Operation Choose Kind” campaign kick-off in October! This will now be a district wide campaign to spread awareness for kids with craniofacial differences AS WELL as taking a stand against bullying. We will also be raising awareness in the community by doing a coin challenge fundraiser for the Children’s Craniofacial Association (CCA), promoting and encouraging all to read the book Wonder, district posters will be hanging on the walls of schools, and to top it off, the 7th grade Character Education class at the middle school will be doing a book study on Wonder.
What a WONDERful way to start the school year!! Please take a few minutes to watch the district video that is attached that we will be showing to the students, staff and community……Logan AND Landon are featured! After you watch, please share with anyone and everyone, because this is how we spread awareness!!!! After awareness, follows acceptance, and this is the ultimate goal…..for everyone, isn’t it?
