National initiative set to reach 280 local students starting next school year
The Kiwanis Club of Sedona-Bell Rock plans to bring the Terrific Kids program, which promotes students who are Thoughtful, Enthusiastic, Respectful, Responsible, Inclusive, Friendly, Inquisitive and Capable, to about 280 students at West Sedona School next year, after classes start in August.
“I have been privileged enough to have Kiwanis in the other districts that I’ve worked in,” WSS Principal Alisa Stieg said. “What it brings to students and families is a lot of encouragement and support for building character within our students, which helps them not only here at school, but in life.”
“Terrific Kids is a character-building program that recognizes students for modifying their behavior,” Kiwanis Kids states. “This program for primary/elementary school age students encourages kids to become the best version of themselves. Kids determine what being terrific means to them, then develop their own goals and use peer mentoring to hold themselves accountable for the actions they take each week. When participants achieve their goals, they are recognized as Terrific Kids.”
Kiwanis Club of Sedona-Bell Rock President Liz Wilson said that the group will be fundraising over the summer to purchase the goal planners that are about $115 for every 30 students; and the club will be doing either a candy drive and/or golf fundraiser to make the purchase.
“Our goal originally was to start with one class out of WSS, but Stieg wants to do the whole school, so we’re eager to do that,” Wilson said. “Anything we can do in the community to help, we appreciate.”
Students work with their teacher who runs the program and a goal buddy to help each other reach their goals.
“However, Kiwanis comes in quarterly or monthly and talks about community service, or we bring in a pizza or celebrate their successes with tokens such as bumper stickers or pencils and T-shirts,” Wilson said. “They set goals about how they’re going to serve their community, how they’re going to serve their family. We [celebrate] how far we’ve gotten with those goals, and if they have to change the plans that they made.”
Wilson said she hopes the program gets WSS students involved in community service at an early age.
“This gives the students the opportunity to get out and realize there’s people that care about them, and that in return, they should be caring about other people,” Wilson said.
Stieg said Terrific Kids also fits into how WSS already operates and teaches kids how to set goals.
“We have kids being acknowledged for character traits we’ve already been working on,” she said. “For example they also get to sit front and center at school assemblies and sometimes get to participate with guests. During February, the Be Kind Project came, and the kids chosen for emulating that month’s attribute got to sit up front and were easily chosen to come on stage. It was really a special treat.”
For more information visit kiwaniskids.org, and Kiwanis Club of Sedona-Bell Rock chapter meets the first Tuesday of the month, at 11 a.m., at the Sedona Elks Lodge at 110, Airport Road, and the club can be found on Facebook.
