A North Judson-San Pierre middle school student was chosen as a finalist in a nation-wide charitable design contest. At last night’s NJSP School Board meeting, sixth grade teacher JoAnn Gappa and her student Hailey Wright spoke to board members about the Wonder Kind Project.
Mrs. Gappa told board members that her students have recently been reading and working with the book Wonder by R.J. Palacio. One activity she provided to her students was to create a visual representation of kindness and inclusion for a design challenge. GAP Kids started the Choose Kind Challenge inspired by the book, which centers around a child with a Craniofacial condition.
Wright explained the challenge to the members of the board saying, “We all had to design a t-shirt and bunch of other teachers around the world did it and they only picked 8 finalists.” She said her inspiration for her design was to show how we are all different but still “fit in”
Mrs. Gappa explained that 100 percent of the proceeds gathered from the student-designed shirts will be donated to charities that work to educate, empower and transform the lives of children and families living with Craniofacial differences.
As an added bonus, Wright also won a GAP gift card, shirts for her class and a pre-showing for her and her classmates of the upcoming movie inspired by the book. Mrs. Gappa said if all goes according to plan, they’ll also be able to face-time with some of the actors from the movie for a Q&A prior to the screening.
