~ Spreading kindness, acceptance, and inclusion within our community ~

On Thursday, October 20, 2022, Piedmont’s Break the Silence Club hosted a Unity Day Celebration in the school’s courtyard before school.  

The courtyard buzzed with lively conversations, music, dancing, and kindness.  The color orange was worn by many students, including Break the Silence members, who passed out social media information and bingo cards with random acts of kindness on them. Senior Misty May appreciated the thoughtfulness behind the event. May said, “there was very nice music playing and the people were very nice greeting us with the bingo cards.”

These bingo cards may be filled out and turned in to English teacher Andy Fisher in room D2 for a piece of candy.  Every name written on the back of a bingo card will be entered into a raffle for a special prize.

Regardless of winning or losing the raffle, all students seemed to enjoy the loving, inclusive atmosphere provided by Piedmont’s Break the Silence members.  A lot of hard work took place in order for the celebration to happen.  Break the Silence member freshman Ellie Arndt said, “We had to print (and cut out) bingo cards, bring in candy, and print cards for social media”.  Arndt also said her favorite part of the day was “the music and handing out bingo cards”.

May said, “My favorite part was seeing a lot of people I know around school working to bring the bingo cards and just explaining the activity to us, what the purpose was, and why they were there for Unity Day.”

Students at Piedmont recognize Unity Day for a number of reasons.  May said, “It’s just a nice reminder for everybody that it’s good to support each other and be positive because… that’s sometimes very difficult in our world.”

According to Arndt, Unity Day is all about “being unified as a student body and going out of your way to make everybody feel special.”  That was the entire goal of the courtyard celebration: for students to spread love, kindness, and awareness for bullying prevention to their peers.  Students also hoped the event would create a more accepting, inclusive environment within both their school and their community.