St. Patricia School Chooses Kindness by Welcoming New Buddy Bench

The Buddy Bench project has been a year in the making at St. Patricia School in Hickory Hills. The first phase started with working with Green Tree Plastics in Evansville Indiana and their unique program called "A Bench for Caps" ABC Promise Partnership. The school and parish communities collected their caps and lids from various food grade containers, household items, and medication bottles and sent them into school for students to sort and recycle. Every donation inched the Buddy Bench closer to completion and allowed the children to learn real life lessons of sustainability, caring for our planet, and what a difference they can make in their world by a simple act of collecting caps.

On a sunny May 29th, the student body, faculty, and staff gathered at a prayer service led by Fr. Marc to bless the newly completed and installed Buddy Bench. Now the project enters into phase two, encouraging kindness to others and offering a safe place to include all. On days when a child is feeling lonely or left out, sitting on the bench is a signal to classmates to reach out and extend an invitation to join in a game or social group. It is the hope of St. Patricia Principal Mrs. Nowinski, that the Buddy Bench helps to promote a friendly, welcoming school environment and encourages students to make meaningful connections with peers they otherwise may not have the opportunity to socialize with. Praying and acting for kindness in a world that so needs to remember to “do unto to others as we would have them do unto us,” the Buddy Bench is an exciting addition to the St. Patricia School campus and will be a valuable tool to help others choose kindness for years to come.

For more information on St. Patricia School please call us at (708) 598-8200 or visit on the web at www.stpatriciaparish/school.com. Enrollment for the 2018-2019 school year is currently open for our Pre-K programs and Kindergarten through 8th grade. We would love to meet you and have you join our family!