Watertown High School has received a Youth Leadership Grant to support the Unified Sports and Best Buddies program. The Inclusion/Kindness week is an event that is supported from this grant and focuses on spreading inclusion and awareness in the school community. The Kindness and Inclusion Week will be the week of April 24 and run through April 28. During kindness and inclusion week there will be a staff and Unified Sports team kickball game with “Choose to Include” t-shirts given to the participants of the event. The students and staff of WHS will also be handing out popcorn, which plays on their metaphor, “everyone is the same but different” just like popcorn. They will also be giving out “spread the word” bracelets during lunch waves after signing the Inclusion Banner, making their pledge to include all students in their school community. There will be a Unified Sports field trip to SCSU, funded by the grant, to explore their Adaptive Sport program.

Daniela Perugini is a senior at Watertown High School, who is an officer in the Best Buddies program as well as the captain of Unified Sports. Best Buddies is an international program designed to create friendships for students with and without disabilities. The advisors of the WHS Best Buddies program and Unified Sports at the high school are Ms. Wolf, Ms. Mcbride, and Ms. Blatherwick.

 On April 25, Brian Williams will be coming to WHS as a guest speaker to talk about his experiences with helping out children with disabilities. Brian Williams is known for holding a shoe drive in his community and traveled to Africa to hand deliver children their shoes. Brian will also be at WHS to give our school some tips on spreading awareness and the importance of inclusion.