LIMA, OH (WLIO) - Unity Elementary invited the community to welcome students as they head back to class.
The start of a new year can be scary and challenging for some students, so Unity invited community members to clap and cheer them on as they arrived at school. A large number of people lined the hallways including the Lima Fire Department chief, members of the Lima Police Department, and Mayor Sharetta Smith. Members of Bradfield Community Center's DrumFun Class joined in to lay down a beat. The goal is to show how much the community cares.
"Everything that children do should be a celebration because we are there to teach them. Even when they make the small mistakes, our job as adults is to tell them, let's think about how we did this, and let's try it differently. Because I'm sure every one of these community members at one time in their life had somebody say that probably wasn't a real good choice, so let's try this," stated Tricia Winkler, Unity Elementary principal.
"We're just so proud to be here because we're so proud of our young people in the Lima community. It was so important for us to participate with our drumsticks, and clap these young people in," said Leslie Gordon, Bradfield DrumFun Class.
This was the first year for the community clap-in, and it encouraged students and staff that the Lima community has their backs.
