Sammie Vance, 14, knows there’s nothing worse than feeling left out. For years, she’s been helping kids who feel lonely make friends. “There was one little boy at school, younger than me,” she said. “He would see me in the hallway and give me a thumbs-up, to tell me that what I was doing helped him.”
What Sammie 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”. That let other kids know someone needed a friend. “It’s really helpful to have other people be able to notice you,” Sammie says.
The idea quickly caught on. The bench brought kids together. Since then, Sammie has helped communities (社区) all over the country set up buddy benches. “It means a lot to me,” she says, “that this is making a difference in people’s lives.”
Sammie says the effort (努力) has helped her overcome personal challenges. “I used to be really, really shy,” she says. “Now ▲ .”
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