Buddy Bench: Bringing Friends Together at Ocean City Primary School

The nearly 400 students at the Ocean City Primary School have a wide range of new playground equipment to enjoy, including a Buddy Bench, with daily parent volunteers at recess. The school hosted a ribbon cutting on Oct. 29, especially to highlight the Buddy Bench, which can be used by a student whenever they feel they need a friend.

“The playground is where friendship starts. In play you learn, practice, and master skills on how to be a good friend; these skills transfer into the community, the workplace, and our society,” Ocean City Primary School Principal Cathleen Smith said. “We want our children to become more aware of feelings and teach sensitivity.”

In the week leading up to the ceremony, third-graders were tasked with writing down their personal definitions of friendship on slips of paper, which were used to create a chain around the Buddy Bench during the ceremony.

The entire third-grade class also recited The Pledge of Kindness during the ceremony, in which they promised to be kind in every way to every person.

“The Buddy Bench is really nice because if you’re alone somebody can just walk over and ask to play with you and make you really happy,” Georgia Little, an eight-year-old third-grader at Ocean City Primary School, said.

In addition to the Buddy Bench, the new playground equipment includes a yoga hot spot, mini-golf, Chinese jump rope, soccer, football, Skip-It, kickball, and jump rope.

The Ocean City Parent Teacher Association and the Ocean City Education Foundation provided the funding for the new equipment.

Members of both organizations joined Board of Education members, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Kathleen Taylor, and parent volunteers at the ceremony.

“Friendship is 90 percent of the world. A friend is a good thing to be and a good thing to do,” Mimi McCusker, a nine-year-old Ocean City Primary School third-grade student, said. “Friendship makes the world a better place; it’s one of the greatest things in the world.”

The attached images were provided by the Ocean City School District:

Photo 1 – Ocean City Primary School Principal Cathleen Smith, right, in gray, asks for her third-graders help in dedicating the brand new Buddy Bench during a ceremony on Thursday, October 29.

Photo 2 – Celebrating the playground’s new equipment, including the Buddy Bench, are, from left, Tricia Ciliberto, President of the Ocean City Education Foundation; Cathleen Smith, OCPS Principal; third-grader Itzel Olmedo-Bautista; third-grader Ingrid Martinez; third-grader Rachel Pates; Dr. Kathleen Taylor, Superintendent of Ocean City School District; Jocelyn Palaganas, President, Ocean City Parent Teacher Association.