Sammie, 14, knows there's nothing worse than feeling left out. For years, she's been helping kids who feel lonely make friends. What she was doing was running the Buddy Bench program. She started it when she was in the third grade, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The idea was that anyone at school who was feeling lonely could sit on the "buddy bench." The idea quickly caught on. The bench brought kids together. Since then, Sammie has helped communities all over the country set up buddy benches.
Sammie got the idea for the Buddy Bench program at summer camp in
2017. She thought it would be cool to have a buddy bench in her school, so when she got home, she presented the idea to her principal, her teachers, and her parents.
Getting approval for the project was just the first step. "There have been a lot of small challenges, like money," Sammie says. To reduce costs and be eco-friendly, Sammie decided to make the bench out of recycled material. So she rallied her community to gather bottle caps. Sammie received encouraging responses. With people working together in an orderly way, she soon collected more than 1,200 pounds of bottle caps.
Sammie says the effort has helped her overcome personal challenges. "I used to be really, really shy," she says. "I'm definitely more outgoing now." She has also learned to acknowledge her limits, and to take breaks when working on a big project.
"You don't have to be an adult to make a difference," she says. Even small acts of kindness can be powerful. "It can make someone's day and lead to a chain reaction," she adds. "You never know. Just be kind, in general."
