Yesterday was my Student Council’s 2nd annual Warm Your Heart Day! This is probably my favorite event that we put on each year. For the month prior to Warm Your Heart Day, the officers deck the school out in anti-bullying posters. They also write and deliver announcements each morning over the PA system for a week before the event. These announcements discuss the negative consequences of verbal bullying and discuss how hurtful words can be to someone.

Additionally to prepare the event, the students write letters to community businesses asking for donations. I also attach a letter typed on letterhead and then send them out in the mail. We were very lucky to have the event completely funded by Tops of Attica and Tops of Alden this year. After purchasing the supplies, the students develop a list of 50 compliments and hand write the compliments on 500 styrofoam cups!

On Wednesday, June 9th we handed out over 400 cups of hot chocolate to every student and staff member in the school. When the students deliver a cup, they also read the compliment to the person. The officers run this event completely. They make the hot chocolate, serve it, deliver it to staff members who do not come to the cafeteria, and clean up. It is a lot of work, but the students do a fabulous job.

On the afternoon announcements the officers discussed how good it felt to get a compliment. We encouraged the students to use their words to be kind to others and to bring others up, not tear them down. The message is inspirational and I truly believe the students warmed a lot of hearts!

I have to say that one of the most memorable parts of the day reminded me of something straight out of a movie or television show. It was exactly as a writer would have written it. It was hilarious. One of my class representatives was pouring hot chocolate. We use those big coolers (like the Gatorade ones that have the little spout on the side) and as she was holding the spout open, the whole spicket came off of the cooler! There was steaming hot chocolate shooting out of the now uncovered hole in the cooler and she starting screaming. I told her to stop it because I thought she just left the lever open. Not knowing what to do, she started taking styrofoam cups and filling them with the 5 gallons of hot chocolate that was pouring onto the floor. As one cup filled up, she proceeded to throw it over her shoulder and move on to the next cup. The mess just kept growing. My treasurer grabbed an empty cooler and ran over to try to catch the flood, but both girls were now hanging on to each other, their boots slipping right through the puddle, as they used each other to maintain balance. Finally, I was able to get over to the mess and I tipped the cooler back and we dumped it into another bucket. When we got it under control, we looked around and noticed that the whole cafeteria was silent and staring at us. We all burst into laughter and began to clean up. I have a history for something going wrong at every event and I can’t help but laugh every time it does. It’s the little mistakes in life that make for the best memories!

Check out our picture in the Batavia Daily News here!