Ringgold schools to get ‘buddy benches’
Three years ago, Christian Buck, a second-grader at Roundtown Elementary School in York, looked around the playground at his school at recess and noticed that some of the students were standing alone and not playing with their classmates.
Feeling a pang of compassion, he hit on an idea that has since caught fire and spread around the country, even the world. After looking at a photo his father showed him of a “buddy bench” in Germany, he decided to install one in his own schoolyard after getting approval from the school’s principal.
The idea behind the buddy bench is to foster friendship and eliminate loneliness by spreading a message of inclusion and kindness. When a student has no one to play with or feels isolated or upset, he or she can sit on the bench as an invitation for camaraderie. The hope is that a fellow student will get the message and break the ice by sitting next to the student, becoming friends and providing peer support.
To date, hundreds of buddy benches have found their way into schoolyards both in the United States and countries as far flung as Australia, Japan, India, Italy and the United Kingdom.
In Washington County, Madonna Catholic School in Monongahela installed a buddy bench for its students in 2014, and if three enterprising members of Girl Scout Troop 54056 in Finleyville have their way, Ringgold North and South elementary schools will have the benches on their playgrounds in time for the opening of the 2016-17 school year.
When Madonna school counselor Michele Ruddock saw a buddy bench on Facebook, she said she immediately knew she wanted her students to have one. After getting approval from school administrators, she purchased a bench kit at IKEA and had her fourth-grade students design and paint it as a special project.
The buddy bench was installed in April 2014, and the lightweight wooden structure is taken out daily during recess, then carried back inside when classes resume to keep it looking good and unaffected by the weather.
“Caring for the bench gives the kids a sense of responsibility for it,” Ruddock said. “And they love it. Whenever they see someone sitting alone on it, they go up to them and try to make them feel included.”
The Ringgold project is the brainchild of three Scouts, Abbey Powell of Finleyville, Amanda Robison of Monongahela and Danika Evans of Elrama. All three are eighth-grade students at Ringgold Middle School who are building the benches in order to earn their Girl Scout Cadet Silver Awards.
“All three Scouts have already completed the requirements for the awards except for the buddy bench project,” said Deb Evans of Elrama, the troop leader who first proposed the idea.
After outlining their buddy bench proposal to the school superintendent and getting his approval, the girls sent a letter to their local Lowe’s home improvement center asking for a donation of building materials. The plan is to construct two identical benches and have workers in the schools’ buildings and grounds crew help select appropriate sites on the two playgrounds for their installation.
The Scouts would also like to involve the students in the project by having them help paint the benches. The projected completion date is late August or early September. At the moment, the three girls are writing a skit to explain how the buddy bench works to facilitate friendship and plan to act out the skit in front of the schools’ elementary students, pending approval of the principal.
“When a student feels lonely or bored at recess, he or she can sit on the bench,” Evans said. “When other students notice them, they can sit next to them, talk to them and invite them to play. The benches effectively show the effect of a caring culture.”
Buddy benches can be any shape or size, but most are painted in bright colors and come with big letters that read “Buddy Bench.” An aid to prevent bullying in schools, the benches foster a network of friendships that help counteract threats from potential bullies. According to the National Association of School Psychologists, up to 30 percent of students in the U.S. have experienced some type of bullying.
As for the York County student who first introduced the concept of buddy benches to the United States, Christian Buck has continued to spread the word by taking his message to groups from California to Connecticut, according to Good News Network, a website designed to disseminate positive news stories from around the globe.