A Buckeye Junior High School teacher’s mission to fill the void of isolation and loneliness among her students is growing through a project she created called, “The Confetti Project.”
News 5 introduced the project created by Language Arts teacher, Jody Keith, last year. As we are dedicated to following through on every chapter of stories like this one, we wanted to share how the project is now shaping eighth graders like, Katelyn Haney, into mentors to the Buckeye School District’s primary school students.
We don’t just report the initial story—we follow through to its conclusion. Read and watch our previous reporting on this story below and see more stories that we've followed through on here.
“I’m able to talk to people and not hold anything inside of me,” Haney said. “Now, I’m wanting to do more projects and talking to more people so I can have my community broadened.”
Through “Book Buddies,” Keith is allowing her students to meet up with kindergarten through third-grade students once a quarter to discuss a mutually shared book. However, the buddies keep in touch through handwritten letters and even video chats.
“It just helps with empathy. It helps with perspective, and it also helps the littles. They get so excited…We’re trying to get a variety of topics that will hit whatever the needs of the kids are,” she said. “They’re having these big conversations and they don’t even know they’re having them.”
According to “The Journal,” 84% of students nationwide reported adolescent stress in 2022. That same year, 88% of students nationwide wished they had more trusted resources and ways to help.
“Once a child has trust in somebody else, you don’t what might be shared that is necessary, that somebody else needs to hear about, that somebody else should act upon,” Buckeye parent Molly Woofter said.
Last year, Woofter’s son Isaac shared with us his own battles with feeling alone, misplaced, awkward and frustrated throughout middle school.
“As a parent seeing your kids withdraw and pulling back and closing their doors and things like that you’re twiddling your thumbs like, how do I help? I felt disconnected. thought I was failing because of the fact that I not only didn’t have the answer, but I couldn’t make them happy…the problems get biggest. The problems get harder, and the problems don’t have a straight answer,” Woofter said. “I had to develop myself.”
Woofter says it was the Confetti Project that eventually pulled her then, eighth-grade son out of the darkness he felt. Woofter says the project helped her as well.
“We do need other people,” she said. “When this opportunity comes around, it allows people to just talk.”
Keith is opening the Confetti Project to the community with an invite to Buckeye Junior High School on Tuesday, October 10 to discuss ways to get more people involved. Keith also has plans to partner with seniors within local assisted living facilities.
