Exciting news! The “buddy bench” is now in place at Woodland’s north courtyard at St. Clair County RESA. A small ceremony to dedicate the buddy bench was held last week. The bench is made of plastic from hard plastic bottle caps. Jean Sturtridge, RESA director of Legal Services, led the project. She started a drive to collect bottle caps which are processed and turned into benches. Woodland students washed the collected caps. Students in the Virtual Learning Academy’s Transition program sorted them by color. When there was enough collected, RESA took them to a processing company in Indiana and returned with the buddy bench. The idea behind buddy benches is to show caring and inclusion. A child who wants to participate in some activity sits on or near the bench. Other students are encouraged to watch for anyone on the bench and invite that student to join them.
