On Wednesday, Oct. 16 the North Polk Community School District held its second annual “Unity Day,” and celebrated throughout the different schools in a variety of ways.
High School counselor Taylor Irvin explained that the decision to bring Unity Day to North Polk was due to the celebration being a national holiday in the midst of October, as the month is National Bullying Prevention Month.
One of the many ways in which unity was explored and encouraged was through seniors of North Polk High School visiting and interacting with elementary school kids throughout the district; Big Creek Elementary, West Elementary and finally Central Elementary.
Irvin expressed that these activities came together with the help of counselors throughout the district with hopes of creating a discussion on the importance of kindness and different ways of achieving said goodwill among everyone.
“Bullying can be prevented. And it can be prevented by instilling an importance of sharing kindness, promoting acceptance and encouraging inclusion,” Irvin stated in regards to reaching for younger audiences on Unity Day.
In regards to seeing the interactions between younger students with seniors, Irvin expressed that it brought “so much joy” to her. “Hearing all the joy from the youngins to having every single one of our HS Comets say ‘that was so much fun,’ ‘I want to do that again,’ ‘those kids were so kind” tells me that this event was a success.”
Irvin explained that the eventual goal for Unity Day is to make the celebration “bigger and better” with each year, which conveys the importance and determination to create a united environment for not only the school district, but throughout students lives outside of school.
