Broadening our Community
Yesterday, the sixth grade piled into two school buses wearing their brightly colored Be-More shirts designating their teams. They knew they'd meet the other half of their teams across the city. At Gardenville Elementary School on Belair Rd. 
students and teachers greeted them (and their teachers) and teammates were introduced to each other.
Through the morning, the teams rotated through three activities - one which focused on developing some soccer skills, another focusing on building team spirit through outdoor games, and the third where the kids introduced themselves through shields they had worked on before the meeting. The shields depicted four aspects of themselves: a flag that represented them, a favorite food, a favorite holiday, and their names or nicknames. Each team also chose a name for their team and devised cheer for themselves. Each of the activities was led by a facilitator (one of whom was Paul Worley) and each team had a Be More coach who led the discussion or cheered the team on. Teachers watched and followed the children!
For several years, the sixth grade teachers have been interested in developing a partnership with a Baltimore City school. For a variety of reasons they never seemed to take off until we talked to Eloise Grose (class of '02) who is the Director of Be More. Some of you will be familiar with Be More because your children participated in their weekend program last year. The goal of Be More is to bring children from different backgrounds, races, and religions together to play, to learn from each other, and to find common ground.
This year, Be More has started a school program and it was just the thing our sixth grade was looking for. We have been "twinned" with Gardenville, in the Moravia/Walther area of northeast Baltimore. 
The plan is to get together once a month, alternating the meetings places. We started at Gardenville; next month, their children and teachers will come here. Over the course of the year, students will learn some soccer (and later basketball) skills, play some group oriented games, and meet together to talk about topics such as community and identity, breaking down stereotypes, and finding similarities and celebrating differences. We are also hopeful that in the spring, the kids will take on a service project together - perhaps working in a community garden together.
The morning was beautifully organized and the kids had a great time. Even those children who do not think of themselves as "team" or "sports" people seemed to find some things to smile about! We're looking forward to getting together next month.