Tuesday, June 6th saw students from Kindergarten to Grade 5 at Blackville School gather in the Gym to celebrate being the top fundraisers in a recent In motion Walkathon. The walks, which raised funds to train community volunteers for the Roots of Empathy program, were held in many Elementary and Middle Schools in District 16 over the past 2 weeks. Some schools also did “penny drives”, bake sales or had their Home & School Associations donate to this initiative while Tobi Deveaux held a “fitness night and the Miramichi Jaycees donated as well.  Through these efforts over $9000. 00 has been raised. The elementary students at Blackville managed to raise a total of $3069.23 and held their walk on Friday, May 20th.  Local Miramichi artist, Gloria Savoie, was on hand in Blackville to present her donated wood etching entitled “Children of Yemen” to school principal Trudy Brophy- Underhill. Gloria believes that “creativity is what gives wings to our imagination and lifts our spirits into the realm of mystery and possibility”. Her artistic work has been influenced by her involvement in Yoga and her travels to India and other parts of the Middle East. Gloria takes a special interest in tonal and three dimensional drawings and wood etching. Her beautiful art work will be proudly displayed at the Blackville School. Darlene MacDonald, Miramichi coordinator for Roots of Empathy feels it very nicely reflect the message of inclusion and diversity of cultures that students learn about in ROE.  MacDonald says that the students come to understand in this program that we may look different, live in different types of homes or different parts of the world but we share the same feelings and our smiles, hearts and pain are all the same.  Roots of Empathy has been delivered to approximately 1000 students in District 16 since 2005. The Blackville School has had the program for 5yrs and the tremendous community support is evident in the generous donations received. ROE is an evidenced based program created by Mary Gordon in 1996 which has been shown to reduce levels of aggression among school children while raising social/emotional competence and increasing empathy. Empathy is the ability to identify with another person’s feelings and people who have empathy are less likely to bully others.  A top fundraiser prize donated by Hal Somers of Towne Sales and Service was also awarded and Grade 1 student, Emily Hallihan, raised the most money while Kindergarten student, Abigail McEvoy, was a close second with less than two dollars separating them. The committee therefore awarded two proud, surprised young ladies with new bikes and helmets.  Mrs. Jennifer Hambrook’s Grade 2 class was presented books and a board game for being the top class. Also on hand for the event was Janice Jardine, Public Health Nurse who delivers one of the ROE classes, Lisa Brennan and nine month old Baby Gracelyn. Lisa and Gracelyn have been one of the families participating in ROE this year. Lisa addressed the group and shared that she has really enjoyed bringing Baby Gracelyn to “teach” the students this year and she feels that Baby Gracelyn has loved her year in Mrs. Manderville’s class and the students have shown her “lots of love”. The babies are the “heart” of the program and they will be celebrated on Monday, June 20th at the Kincenter in Miramichi. Roots of Empathy is truly a community based program and would not be possible without the support shown by the communities in our region. The students and teachers in District 16 have managed to get In motion and support a great cause and contribute to creating a better world one classroom at a time with their support.