Mill Hall Elementary Students Celebrate MLK Day by Giving

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MILL HALL – Students at Mill Hall Elementary School spent Martin Luther King, Jr. Day making “Peace Bracelets”. The project was spearheaded by principal, Mike Hall and fifth grade teacher, Robin Bechdel. The Peace Project is a service learning opportunity to for teachers and students to discuss their interpretations of peace, Dr. King’s legacy of nonviolence, and provides students the chance to give back to others through donating the bracelets.

Mr. Hall and Mrs. Bechdel selected Donald T. Shields Elementary School in Glenn Heights, Texas as the recipient of their completed bracelets. Donald T. Shields Elementary houses over 400 students and was destroyed by a tornado on December 26, 2015. The students are currently housed at another location for the remainder of their school year while their school is repaired.

Throughout the day, fourth and fifth grade students served as peer leaders and visited kindergarten through third grade classrooms to work together to make the one of a kind bracelets. Each bracelet was individually bagged and included a message from the student who created it.

Kindergarten teacher, Sue Turchetta showed her students and her partner class, Jodi Reeder’s fourth grade students a short video of Donald T. Shields Elementary that included before and after pictures of the tornado. “I think it’s important for the students to see how much damage was done and why we are doing this for the students who lost their school” said Mrs. Turchetta.

“We wanted to look at Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as a day of peace. When we discovered the devastating tornado that took everything from those elementary school students in Texas, we wanted to brighten their day”, said Mr. Hall.

Mrs. Bechdel has arranged for shipping the bracelets and contacted the school’s administration so that they can prepare for handing them out to their students.