By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
Bullying is something that educators in the Burlington Area School District take very seriously.
Preventing bullying is something that school counselors Andrea Donegan and Mary Wagner embrace at Dyer Intermediate School – which houses four different schools’ worth of students, all coming together for the first time in fifth grade.
“It’s such a big transition for kids,” said Donegan. “Trying to help them to get to meet new people and accepting each other.”
So, in an effort to further the anti-bullying initiative, Donegan and Wagner – in conjunction with school counselors Jenny Holle at Cooper, Melinda Hoffman at Waller and Becky Hoesly at Winkler and Lyons – decided to use artwork to help spread the message.
As a result, about 300 students in kindergarten through sixth grades entered placemat art into a district-wide contest. Seventeen of those submissions were selected to be distributed to five area restaurants.
Starting this week, Charcoal Grill, Lucky Star, The Coffee House at Chestnut and Pine, Napoli’s and The Town Fryer will use the placemats.
“It’s a way to get the message out in a positive setting,” Donegan said.
Wagner added, “We thought, ‘let’s do a contest.”
Students were given the criteria for the design, which had to be against bullying and convey a positive message.
Some art classes took up the project as a whole, while individual students also took the contest on.
The end result is a diverse range of artwork. Some proclaim, in large letters, the cross-out of teasing, bullying and rumors. Another simply asked if people thought bullying was “worth it.”
And one of the winners – an anonymous message, per the student’s request – reads, “Step up so others don’t get stepped on.”
The anti-bullying message is one Dyer Intermediate Principal Joyce Uglow is very proud of.
“Isn’t that awesome?” Uglow said. “I think it’s really fun that everyone in the city is going to see kids’ artwork in relation to the anti-bullying message.”
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