FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Thursday, Oct. 10, 2019

Media Contact: John Guilfoil
Phone: 617-993-0003
Email: [email protected]

Rochester’s McClelland Elementary School Adopts Kindness Initiative

ROCHESTER — Superintendent Kyle Repucci is pleased to announce that McClelland Elementary School this week formally adopted a nationwide kindness initiative.

Spearheaded by the efforts of second grade teacher Loren Peet, McClelland adopted the Actively Caring for People (AC4P) initiative. The program emphasizes the responsibility everyone has to look after and care for those around them by performing acts of kindness and recognizing when someone performs an act of kindness for them.

McClelland staff and students formally launched the initiative at an in-school event on Tuesday, Oct. 8, which featured decorated halls and the hanging of new banners promoting kindness. Students also learned about the four core area of kindness: helping, sharing, encouraging and inclusion/friendship. Those principles will be reinforced daily in classrooms school-wide.

Each classroom now has two bracelets bearing the initiative’s name, which will be distributed daily to acknowledge acts of kindness that students will share at the start of each day. The bracelets are also individually numbered so that the acts of kindness tied to each one can be tracked.

“I’m so proud of the work that went into bringing this initiative to Rochester,” Superintendent Repucci said. “Through this program, our teachers, staff and students will be able to actively support one another, learn from each other and make their school and the community a better, kinder place.”

In addition to classroom bracelets, teachers will have the opportunity to pass bracelets of their own to share with peers who perform acts of kindness.

At the end of the school year, each McClelland student will receive a bracelet to keep as their own and wear to raise awareness of the importance of kindness in all aspects of their lives.

AC4P was launched in response to the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting.

###