NEWS

Teen brings 'pro-friendship' to Fond du Lac schools

Madeline Zukowski
USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin
Acacia Woodley, 15, of Florida, talks to Roberts Elementary School 2nd graders Eli Klotz, Dezriah Sallis and Antonia Flores about the Friendship Bench they are receiving for their playground. Woodley came up with the idea for Friendship Benches and travels the country talking to kids about being pro friendly. Tuesday January 24, 2017.

FOND DU LAC - Acacia Woodley stood at the front of the cafeteria at Roberts Elementary School Tuesday afternoon with a big smile on her face. Beside her, a blue tarp covered something large. Like a magician, she pulled it away, revealing a multi-colored bench. The crowd of third, fourth and fifth graders gasped and cheered.

Acacia, 15, a Florida native and founder of Tiny Girl, Big Dream, a for-profit organization with the goal to put a friendship bench in every school across the United States and Canada, spoke to students Monday and Tuesday, and brought a few benches with her. Local company Silica For Your Home donated benches to be placed in Roberts Elementary School, the Friendship Learning Center, Rosenow Elementary School and Waters Elementary School.

The first friendship bench in the Fond du Lac School District was installed at the old St. Joe's Catholic School campus in 2015.

RELATED: Friendship bench mends fences 

RELATED: Defining bullying key to fighting it 

SUBSCRIBE NOW: Follow us today on YouTube 

Acacia Woodley, 15, of Florida, talks to 4th and 5th graders at Roberts Elementary School about the Friendship Bench they are receiving for their playground. Woodley came up with the idea for Friendship Benches and travels the country talking to kids about being pro friendly. Tuesday January 24, 2017.

A friendship bench allows students to show how they are feeling. Students who feel alone, are having a bad day or are struggling can sit on the bench. Other students are then instructed to reach out to those sitting on the bench and include them in activities or talk with them.

"(The students who reach out) get the very best part of it," Acacia said during her speech at Roberts Elementary. "You get to sit beside (those on the bench) and make their day better."

Acacia explained how the bench, made out of 100-percent recycled plastics by the Canadian company C. R. Plastics Products, isn't perfect. It's made out of many imperfect scrap pieces, but when those pieces are brought together, they make something beautiful. The same idea can be applied to human beings.

"Human beings are flawed, but when we come together, we create a beautiful world," Acacia said.

While she said it's easy for people to look at themselves, others and the world and point out the flaws, it's important to see the beauty in everything.

Acacia developed the friendship bench idea at the age of 10, back in 2012. She had just moved into a different school, and one girl constantly bullied her and her friends.

"I invited (the girl) over to my house to discuss what was going on and discovered that she was going through a really difficult time at home," Acacia said. "It was stuff that she didn't really know how to deal with so she took it out on me and some other kids. I had this realization that it wasn't just the people being bullied that needed help, it was also the bullies. Everyone needed a place to go and so I created the friendship bench."

There are currently about 500 benches in schools across the United States, Canada, China and Sweden, Acacia said. She has spoken to students in schools in the U.S. and Canada for years; she estimates about 230 times total. She travels one or two weeks every month while taking classes online.

She describes her experience of presenting, traveling and meeting students rewarding and amazing.

"I'm able to not only meet the kids and tell them my story and teach them that not only can they recover from whatever they're going through, but also to remember that they're amazing and all of those things," Acacia said. "It's really incredible because I get stories from kids about how (the benches have) helped them and what's happened to them in the past and everything like that and it's really kind of a crazy thing."

Acacia Woodley, 15, of Florida, talks to 4th and 5th graders at Roberts Elementary School about the Friendship Bench they are receiving for their playground. Woodley came up with the idea for Friendship Benches and travels the country talking to kids about being pro friendly. Tuesday January 24, 2017.

In addition to introducing the friendship benches to schools, Acacia also introduces friendship reports, which encourage students to report random acts of kindness happening in the classroom. Students also received bracelets with the phrase "I am amazing" on them.

"To teach (students) at a young age that they are amazing and they can also get recognition for the good things, is a really important thing at this age and just in general to know in life," Acacia said.

Acacia describes this movement as a pro-friendship movement, not an anti-bullying movement. She says anti-bullying is a phrase that hasn't worked, despite the numerous anti-bullying campaigns that have developed over the past couple of years. She chooses to focus on the positive and wants kids to do the same.

"I just think we should be teaching pro-friendship more, and teaching kids how to be friends instead of how to not be bullies," she said.

Reach Madeline Zukowski at 920-907-7968 or mzukowski@gannett.com; on Twitter:@madszuko.