Schools
Student-Created Buddy Bench Debuts At Ridgewood School
A group of fifth-graders at Orchard Elementary School helped develop the bench. It is meant to help students socialize and make friends.
RIDGEWOOD, NJ — A buddy bench debuted at Orchard Elementary School at Tuesday.
The bench is for students to use who are looking for someone to play with or who feel lonely at recess.
The school's Choose To Be Nice Implementation Team, a club of Orchard fifth-graders, met last year to come up with ideas of how to spread kindness throughout the school and greater Ridgewood community.
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The team held a fundraiser to purchase the bench and a contest to determine what design would go on it. Guilia Jimenez-Galasso won the contest. The team also helped assemble the bench. Parent Melissa Perlman led the team.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the bench was held Tuesday.
Find out what's happening in Ridgewood-Glen Rockfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Email: daniel.hubbard@patch.com
Photos: From left: Broady Pearlman, Guilia Jimenez-Galasso, and Melissa Pearlman; the buddy bench; Ridgewood's Board Of Education and Mayor Ramon Hache, and Guilia Jimenez-Galasso (Courtesy of Carla Sullivan)
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