Students enjoy Unity Day at Duluth’s Raleigh Academy

October is Bully Prevention Month and Duluth’s Raleigh Academy celebrated their school spirit on Wednesday with Unity Day. The event gave students a chance to express what unity means to them with their classmates and teachers.

Steve Ondrus, the Raleigh Academy Director has been the director of the school for 3 years and talked about what this day means to him, his staff, and students.

"Unity day is all about supporting each other, including others, accepting others," Ondrus said.

Ondrus says a big part of the program is to show the students how they can be supportive of others, and show them how to stand up for a classmate that may be feeling bullied. "It’s something that we weave into our everyday.”

The kids were excited for this special day and described what Unity means to them with words like: “Be kind" and "Include others.”

The students spent the day doing activities like: decorating rocks for their plant garden, learning about how they can stand up, uplift, and include others. The learned about being kind and accepting toward all students and members of their community.

All students created cut-out hand prints that were placed on a giant globe display which focused around the school’s quote, “We rise by lifting others.”

Mr. Ondrus said the display of hands over the world shows how the entire school can come together as a community. He says COVID has been an isolation for all, whether at home or in the classroom.

"This is an opportunity for us to come together as a community and show that we’re all working together to create unity,” he said.

When all the hands are on the globe-shaped display, its looks like different hands hugging the world. It such a beautiful representation of unity and togetherness.

Everyone in the school will be given t-shirts to wear on Friday to continue promoting Bully Prevention Month. It is a positive outlook that the school is doing to create inclusion in their students starting off at a young age.