Savannah Wells, Kai Tai and Amelia Lievers received their pocket hugs and quickly participated in a group hug with art teacher Fawn Johnson and teacher’s aide Melissa Costa.
Pocket hugs have been distributed to Chancellor Livingston Elementary students for two months to boost a student’s spirit or recognize a student for being a difference maker with a classmate. Pocket hugs are a sewed or crocheted heart kept in a small plastic bag with a typed message about love and hugs.
“I love it. It makes me feel happy,” said Wells, who keeps her pink heart in her bookbag.
Costa used pocket hugs as created by painting a smiley face on rocks when she was teaching kindergarten and preschool in Massachusetts, and decided to use a similar program at CLS.
Costa and Johnson are having their mothers crochet and sew the hearts for the pocket hugs. Johnson’s mom, Marian Finch, is 94, and Costa’s mom, Diane Carroll, is almost 70.
“She loves her participation in this,” said Johnson. “We’re going to have her keep making them. We cannot have too many. Ultimately, we can share them with the middle school and the high school counselors. I don’t think there is an age limit on the pocket hug.”
Costa said of her mom, “She loves it so much. She’s a retired school nurse. She thought it was a wonderful idea and it gives her something to do that brings her joy.”
The hearts are placed in a small plastic bag with a typed message – “This little heart is full of love and hugs. Keep it close, squeeze it tight and know that you are loved!”
“You can hug it if you’re having a bad day. We’re noticing it’s really helping the students,” said Costa.
The pocket hugs also continue to remind students of the school message of Keep Kindness Going. CLS held its first Unity Week in October to promote kindness.
“The biggest way it kind of connected to the kindness and unity that we’re constantly trying to build on is the idea that its inception came from the roots of kindness. It was such a kind gesture,” CLS Principal Brett King said of pocket hugs.