Lake County Gazette

Roosevelt Elementary School students recently welcomed guests from Maine South High School for an assembly focused on understanding abilities, celebrating differences, and the importance of inclusion.

This event resulted from a partnership between the Roosevelt All Abilities PTO committee and the Hawk Pals, which is the Inclusion Club and Special Olympics program at Maine South. Several of the high schoolers were D64 alums.

Through different activities and conversations, students learned that while everyone might look different on the outside or have different abilities, everyone is the same on the inside.

The Hawk Pals read through excerpts from the book “Included,” which introduces readers to six children: Sam has Cerebral Palsy, Rishi is Autistic, Jay is deaf, Audrey has Down Syndrome, Ty has ADHD, and Zara has a limb difference.

Some other highlights included watching a video about athletes who compete in the Paralympics and learning ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’ in sign language.

“Being different is okay because we all have something special about us,” said one high school student. “Kids with disabilities are just like you. They have things that they’re good at and things that they might need to work on. And just like you, they have hopes and dreams. They want to feel safe, loved, and respected, and they want to feel included. ”

To wrap things up, students learned the song “Kindness is a Muscle,” which helped reinforce the idea that being kind is something you can practice and strengthen every day.

Following the lead of the Hawk Pals, Roosevelt students sang out, “We kids will show you the way and flex it every day. ”