WARREN, NJ – On Friday, October 4th, Woodland School hosted an assembly for the students called “The myFace Wonder Project.” According to myFace, “ The goal of the myFace Wonder Project is to teach students of all ages the importance of empathy, inclusivity, and being an Upstander against bullying.”
The assembly opened with Alexis Lindy, 5th grade student ambassador, speaking to the students and introducing the main speaker, Dina Zuckerberg, myFace Director of Family Programs.
Dina kicked off the presentation by talking about facial differences in people. She shared her own story of growing up with facial differences such as a cleft lip, hearing and vision impairments. Dina instilled the belief that, although many different children may have been born with facial differences, they can do anything they set their minds to.
She has not allowed these limitations to disrupt her quality of life. Her message to all is to “be nice to people and to include them and lend a helping hand. You may not mean it at the time, but any unkind words are very hard to take back.” She shared stories from her own childhood and how she was not a stranger to kids being mean to her. She has also worked with other children who also have experienced some form of bullying.
Dina continued the presentation by engaging the students with an exercise in which they were each holding a piece of paper. Dina instructed them to crumple the paper and then attempt to make it look like its original form again. The significance of the exercise was to show how words can crumple and leave a crease on your heart that becomes very challenging to correct.
The Wonder Project teaches to “Choose Kindness.” Dina talked about and encouraged the students to use their superpower of saying sorry and to choose to be kinder to one another.
Dina challenged the students to talk about how to be kind. These were their answers: play with someone at recess, go up to another student and introduce yourself and to share with other students.
The students were encouraged to share their kindness at home and encourage their families to join them in spreading the kindness. Dina completed her presentation by doing a small Q&A with the students.
Woodland School principal, Mr. Jeffery Heaney shared that the school has decided to show their kindness during the “week of giving back” which takes place October 15, 2024 through October 18, 2024. For this year's annual fundraiser, Woodland School has chosen Children's Craniofacial Association. To raise money, the school is having a coin challenge. Last year, Woodland raised around $1,000 and they plan on exceeding that number this year. October 17th is superhero day where students are encouraged to show their super power of kindness.
For more information about myFace and the Wonder Project please visit myface.org
For more information about the Children's Craniofacial Association, please visit ccakids.org
Photos submitted by Warren Township Schools
Picture 01: myFace Screen
Picture 02: Alexis Lindy
Picture 03: Dina Zuckerberg
Picture 04: Dina Zuckerberg and students
Picture 05: Dina Zuckerberg, Alex McWilliams, Alexis Lindy, Jackie Smith, Jeffery Heaney
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