By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
It didn’t take long for the Winkler Elementary School Buddy Bench to beckon a student.
Principal Jackie Syens recalls finding a kindergartener sitting on the bench recently, one who’d gone to the library to return a book.
“I’m sitting on the Buddy Bench, waiting for a friend,” Syens said she was told. “I said, ‘well, let’s go back to the classroom. We’ll get some friends.”
The bench, added to the school April 6, is the first in the Burlington Area School District, and part of the non-profit Scherrer Cares Buddy Bench program.
The Buddy Bench concept began in 2014, with area schools adding the anti-bullying tool. Students who feel left out – or in need of a friend – sit on the bench until a student reaches out to them.
After the installation of the first bench at a school in Omro, Burlington-based Scherrer Construction has reached out to local schools, including Lakewood School in Twin Lakes and Randall Consolidated.
Syens said that Winkler School staff had been working with Scherrer since October to get the bench installed at the school.
The installation happened with pomp and circumstance April 6, according to Syens. Each classroom selected four students to highlight Winkler’s six pillars of good character: respect, trustworthiness, responsibility, caring, citizenship and fairness.
Those students helped lead the school-wide assembly, and students got their pictures taken with the bench as it was installed.
Syens offered thanks to Scherrer in getting the bench to the school, and added that the bench fits with Winkler’s goals on character education.
“We work on character education and anti-bullying,” Syens said. “This just fit and connected so well with our current school counseling curriculum.
“It was extremely exciting to see the actual results with the bench,” she added. “It’s a visual reminder – and it’s outside of the library – of what we talk about.
“How to be a friend, and what we need to make sure we show.”
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