"You are going to leave here smiling,” Increase Miller Elementary’s Assistant Principal Dr. Michael Weschler said to the full house gathered for the Kindergarten Kindness Concert. He described the event as one of the school’s most beautiful traditions.
The cafeteria was brimming with loved ones, including the performers’ siblings at the school. The stage was filled with smiles.
The chorus of kindergarteners, directed by music teachers April Higgins and Luis Vazquez, sang favorites including “You Are My Sunshine” and “Skidamarink” with energy and confidence. In between songs, classes delivered sweet recitations in unison, practiced with teachers Lisa Burroughs, Donna Dooley, Jennifer Noonan and Colleen Walsh.
Helen, grandmother of kindergartener Zane, was sitting with her family which included two other grandchildren. She traveled from Mohegan Lake for the concert. "I'm very blessed," she said.
Second grader Jack was in the audience, too. When the kindergarteners began singing the school song “Reach for the Stars,” he began doing the hand movements and singing along, too! He said that he remembered his own kindergarten concert.
At the close of the concert, Dr. Weschler congratulated the kindergarteners. “Today you spread kindness to us, and now we can go spread it to others,” he said. “It’s a chain reaction and you started it!”