Start your school year off with kindness!

A message from your friends at the Connecticut Public Affairs Network...

Hey there students and teachers! Welcome back to class for another great year! Elena’s Campaign for Kindness has had an active summer, and we’re very excited to see it continue into this school year. Each new school year brings new experiences: new teachers, new students, and new friendships!

The start of school is the perfect time to think about ways to spread kindness in your classroom, school, community, and beyond. What are some ways that you plan to be kind this year? Whether it’s starting the day with a smile, sitting with someone new at lunch, or filling your classroom with kindness-themed quotes, there’s no act of kindness that’s too big or too small to make a difference!

Need some more ideas? Let’s look at what some of Elena’s constituents – your fellow students and teachers from across the state – are doing to celebrate kindness:

• Enfield’s middle school and high school students hosted a pancake breakfast to raise money and non-perishable food items for local charities, and they even held a Kindness Carnival to reward the town’s younger students for their acts of kindness!
• High school students in Enfield also paired up with elementary schools to mentor 2nd graders, giving them great advice on how to do well in school and how to spread kindness.
• A retired teacher from West Hartford suggests starting each day with a “Circle of Love” – students and teachers all sit together and take turns wishing kindness and good luck to friends, family, or classmates.
• Chaplin Elementary School starts every day with the following “kindness pledge,” and they encourage other classrooms to use it, too!: 
• I pledge to myself on this day,
  To try and be kind in every way.
  To every person big and small,
  I will help them if they fall.
  When I love myself and others too,
  That is the best that I can do.
• Mrs. Finch's classroom at Center School in East Hampton celebrated Kindness Day on the 13th of each month by making a kindness banner for the hallway and collecting items for a local food bank!
• Pleasant Valley Elementary School in South Windsor and Reynolds School in Newington are both getting Buddy Benches for their playgrounds, and East Hartford Rotary has purchased eleven Buddy Benches for the town’s elementary schools!

Do you have other suggestions on how to spread kindness? Write to Elena at CKGElena@kidgovernor.org to share your ideas! Or, if you end up trying one of the ideas from this post, write to us at Brian.Cofrancesco@kidgovernor.org and let us know how it turned out for your class!

Welcome back to school! 

It's time for August Kindness Day!

Hi friends, it's Elena again here with another blog post!!

I once again have ten kindness suggestions for this month's Kindness Day on August 13th!

1. Do a chore for your family without them knowing!
2. Let someone go ahead of you in line! 
3. Donate food to you local food pantry!
4. Read a book to your younger siblings!  
5. Make someone else's bed!
6. Say "thank you" to service worker! 
7. Volunteer at a soup kitchen! 
8. Bring some play dough to a preschool class! 
9. Make a thank you card for your librarian! 
10. Visit your local retirement home and visit a resident!

So these are the kindness suggestions for the month!! What will you do?? Let me know what you're doing this month by emailing me at CKGElena@kidgovernor.org.

Also, new this month! You can write down your act of kindness for Kindness Day on a paper hand - or your own hand! - and share it through social media using #HandsofKindness. This will share my campaign for kindness with lots of people!

  

#HandsofKindness

This month I would like to give a few shout outs:

• To the East Hartford Rotary Club for donating eleven Buddy Benches to East Hartford elementary schools!! 
• To the HOT Schools Summer Institute for letting me speak at their annual conference and spread the word about kindness! 
• HOT Schools Coaches Donna Fitzgerald, Betty Hadlock and Carol Kennedy for their email and support!
• Also big shout out to Joyce Lesich from the Kiwanis Club of Charlottesville, VA - thank you for the email and for helping with the Kiwanis 5k run to benefit kids with medical concerns!! 

Talk to you guys soon!!

- Elena

Announcing CKG Elena's Summer Library Circuit - meet Elena at a local library near you!

A message from your friends at the Connecticut Public Affairs Network...

The Connecticut Public Affairs Network is excited to announce 

Connecticut’s Kid Governor Elena Tipton’s 

2016 Summer Library Circuit 

Meet Governor Elena and learn about her Campaign for Kindness!

Connecticut’s Kid Governor Elena Tipton will visit five libraries across Connecticut as part of her 2016 Summer Library Circuit. Governor Tipton, a recent graduate of Dr. Thomas S. O’Connell Elementary School in East Hartford, will present her Campaign for Kindness platform and discuss how she and other students are working to make Connecticut a kinder state. Elena will also share her vision of installing “Buddy Benches” at 10 Connecticut playgrounds and explain how kids, adults, schools and civic groups can work together to fulfill her goal. The programs are free and open to kids and adults alike, and all attendees will get to participate in a kindness activity! 

Don’t miss your chance to Meet Elena at:

• Hartford Public Library (Downtown, 500 Main Street) on Tuesday, August 9 at 11:00am in the 3rd floor Children’s Department 
• Russell Library (123 Broad Street, Middletown) on Monday, August 15 at 1:00pm in the Children’s Activity Room
• New Haven Free Public Library (Ives Branch, 133 Elm Street) on Monday, August 15 at 4:00pm in the Young Minds and Family Learning Program Room
• Farmington Public Library (Main Library, 6 Monteith Drive) on Wednesday, August 17 at 1:15pm in the Community Room
• Meriden Public Library (105 Miller Street) on Wednesday, August 17 at 4:00pm in the Griffin Room

For more information, please contact Brian Cofrancesco at Brian.Cofrancesco@kidgovernor.org or visit facebook.com/CTKidGovernor.  

This past November, hundreds of 5th graders across the state elected Elena Tipton as the first ever Connecticut’s Kid Governor through a pilot program created by the Connecticut Public Affairs Network (CPAN). Governor Tipton is making several appearances at local libraries as part of her Connecticut’s Kid Governor Summer Library Circuit to share her platform and ways to take action. 

For more information about Governor Tipton’s platform and the Connecticut’s Kid Governor program, please visit CT.KidGovernor.org. 

Bring a "Buddy Bench" to your school or community playground!

Hi everyone, it's Elena here again!! In today's blog post I will be talking all about Buddy Benches and my platform goal of getting 10 schools or communities to bring Buddy Benches to their local playgrounds or parks!! 

So a Buddy Bench is a bench that is out at a school playground or local park and it says "Buddy Bench" on it. When somebody doesn't have anyone to play with they can go sit on that bench and another person goes up to them and says "Hey, why don't you come play with me?" Saying that simple thing gives that person someone to play with and can change their whole day!! Watch my latest video below or HERE to learn more about Buddy Benches!

Now this whole Buddy Bench idea was not my idea - it was started by a superstar kid named Christian Bucks and his principal!! I want to give a huge shout out to him!! Check out his website BuddyBench.org to learn more about him and the story of Buddy Benches!

As I mentioned in the video, there are a few ways you can bring a buddy bench at your school or local playground. You can:

• Paint a bench that is already there and put the words "Buddy Bench" on it!! 
• Find a person or group to build a new Buddy Bench!!
• Buy a custom Buddy Bench online!

There are many ways to raise money for a Buddy Bench! You can have a school fundraiser, contact a community or civic group in your town, or even contact your local Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts about building a bench!! My friends at the Connecticut Public Affairs Network have created a handy Buddy Bench Planning Worksheet available HERE to help you plan your project.

Will you be one of the 10 schools that commits to bringing a Buddy Bench to their community?? I hope you consider it! And if you do please contact me at CKGElena@kidgovernor.org and you will for sure get a shout out in my next blog post - I want to know who's excited to start a Buddy Bench project!

Special shout-outs to Pleasant Valley Elementary School in South Windsor and Reynolds School in Newington who are bringing Buddy Benches to their schools, and the East Hartford Rotary Club who is buying 11 Buddy Benches for our local East Hartford schools!! 

If we work together, we can make Connecticut kinder through Buddy Benches!

For more information about my platform and the Connecticut’s Kid Governor, please visit CT.KidGovernor.org. I will talk to you later – bye!

- Elena