Project proves friendship can cross any barrier

Getting into a game of ladder ball are front row, from left, Ruth Ann Klein, Montana Wilcox and Carla McKillip. Back row from left are Raine Policky and Tanner Weatherly. (Lorri Sughroue/McCook Daily Gazette)

Friendship can cross any barrier, fourth grade students learned recently.

Students from Dawn Diederich's and Kandy Davis' fourth grade classrooms at Central Elementary spent Friday afternoon with members of the Swatter's 4-H Club, a club for developmentally disabled adults, at Southwest Area Training Services.

Bringing together students and clients has become a tradition at SWATS and helps expose kids to all different kinds of people, said Natalie Mickey, Swatters 4-H leader

"This is a good way for us to get to know each other," she said. "It helps kids to understand that you don't need to be afraid -- we have feelings like everyone else."

Fourth graders are an especially good age to help the clients, she said, as they are beginning to understand the importance of friends.

Each student was paired with a client and together they participated in the various activities, such as ladder ball, line dancing, painting and Bingo.

Jennifer Allen, a substitute teacher who brought Davis' class, said at first the students appeared a little hesitant.

But it didn't take too long before the shyness wore off and everyone was enjoying the afternoon.

"After they warmed up to each other, they dove right in," Allen said of the students.

Tanner Weatherly, a student in Davis' class, said he really enjoyed helping the client he was paired with.

"She kept patting me and telling me what a good boy I was," he later said.

"A community is made up of all kinds of people," Diederich said. " It's important kids know that we need to accept everyone."