The Peru Gazette

A message and photos from Sweethearts and Heroes 

PERU, NY — About 350 Peru Central School District (CSD) students recently celebrated months of preparation and hard work — with a focus on changing their school culture — by holding a Community Day with Sweethearts & Heroes on June 11.

About 2,000 elementary school students and 100 high school students from six North Country schools, including Peru, have participated in Community Days throughout May and June with Sweethearts & Heroes, a student empowerment and youth leadership team that aims to prevent hopelessness, bullying and suicide. Sweethearts & Heroes provides dynamic, inspiring content that centers on the human interaction skills necessary for schools and other organizations to change all aspects of their culture — skills such as empathy, compassion and teamwork.

Throughout this school year, the six participating schools have been immersed in Sweethearts & Heroes’ Student Teacher Empathy Program (STEP), which teaches high-schoolers to deliver Sweethearts & Heroes’ foundational anti-bullying message to elementary students in their district — a message for students from students. STEP students are from: the AuSable Valley CSD, Chazy Central Rural School, the Crown Point CSD, Ticonderoga Central School, the Plattsburgh CSD; and the Peru CSD.

High-schoolers in those districts designed Community Days for their elementary-level counterparts. Community Days have featured age-appropriate obstacle courses and team challenges similar to the Spartan-supported races that high school STEP students completed during Sweethearts & Heroes’ first three-day Youth Leadership Summit at Killington Resort in Vermont last September. The Plattsburgh CSD will have Sweethearts & Heroes Community Day stations on display at previously established field days for students in Grades K-5.

The Foundation of Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital (CVPH) is a strong, supportive partner of Sweethearts & Heroes and has provided sponsorships for STEP work in all six North Country schools. Goss Chevrolet, of Champlain, NY, has sponsored Community Days with medals for students and other support.

“Community Day at Peru Central School District was a day like no other for our students!” Peru CSD administrators said in a thank-you letter to Goss, following Community Day. “One 5th grade class commented to their teacher that it was ‘the best day they’ve ever had in school!’ Through team-building challenges and empathy-developing exercises, we were able to culminate our school’s Student Teacher Empathy Program (STEP) with a bang! Thank you for the medals and other support! We had so much fun!”

Josh Parker, General Manager, Goss Chevrolet, said, “Goss Chevrolet is honored to support a program as impactful as Sweethearts & Heroes. Like them, we are committed to empowering today’s youth to overcome hopelessness, prevent bullying, and understand that there is always more to look forward to beyond tomorrow. We are proud to sponsor these vital efforts and look forward to continuing our support for the next generation at every opportunity.”

For more than 16 years, Sweethearts & Heroes has presented what Director/Founder Tom Murphy calls “‘the ‘stop, drop and roll’ of bullying” to more than 2.5 million students in school districts from New England to Hawaii and north into Canada. However, there was a Sweethearts & Heroes first in the AuSable Valley CSD last January: AuSable Valley STEP students — not Sweethearts & Heroes — presented Sweethearts & Heroes’ signature presentation to second-graders at Keeseville Elementary and AuSable Forks Elementary. The other districts followed suit with their respective STEP presentations.

The Foundation of CVPH and Sweethearts & Heroes started their partnership several years ago. Kerry Haley, Associate Vice President of Philanthropy for the foundation, said, “The wellbeing of youth in our region is critical to family dynamics and a strong future. We are proud of the partnership we have had with Sweethearts & Heroes these past several years to reach children where they are at and when they need it most. These programs build a foundation for skills that will last a lifetime.”

For more on Sweethearts & Heroes, find them here on social media.