Over 25 Bucyrus High School students facilitated a Courage Retreat for students in sixth, seventh and eighth grade at the Secondary School December 20. The retreat was the brainchild of the Bucyrus/Pioneer DECA Marketing Program.
“This campaign was designed to help students and community members learn about what invisible disabilities are and help find support for those living with invisible disabilities,” DECA Marketing Teacher Ashley Severt said. “Roni Agler, Nate Johns and Sierra Nash organized the event, created the activities and recruited twenty-five other BHS students to help facilitate the program.”
There were three different sessions that students rotated through. The first was a presentation about what invisible disabilities are and how to deal with them that was presented by Agler, Johns, Nash and Kyle Bryant. The second session was during lunch, where students were given a number that corresponded with a table. This activity encouraged students to sit with someone new and spend time with them.
“This was a great activity for our entire building,” Secondary School Principal Dr. Mark Burke said. “To have this kind of activity that deals with the important topic of bullying and encourages student interaction across all grade levels in the building was tremendous. I can’t thank Ms. Severt and her DECA students enough for the fantastic work they did to make this event successful.”
The third session was broken down into several classrooms where students were in smaller groups and did ice breaker, ‘get to know me’ activities. Students also participated in anti-bullying activities so they could get to know students who they normally do not interact with at their respective grade level.
“The topic of courage was chosen for this project because it feels like ‘anti-bullying’ has been drilled into their (students’) heads so much that they stop listening when you say those words,” Severt said. “Rather than saying the activities were about bullying, we chose instead to encourage students to be courageous and stand up for each other because if they have courage they can make a difference.”