LOCAL HEAD-START HOSTS FRIENDSHIP CEREMONY FOR PRESCHOOLERS


LOCAL HEAD-START HOSTS FRIENDSHIP CEREMONY FOR

PRESCHOOLERS

By Safiyyah P. Muhammad

Altgeld Early Learning Center will host its first annual

Friendship Wedding initiative Saturday, December 10th,

at its learning center, 941 East 132nd Street. The center

will host a mock wedding for 38 preschoolers, ages 2-5,

according to Jennifer Sims, site director for the Altgeld

Early Learning Center.

“This initiative increases our children’s self-confidence and self esteem. During the wedding ceremony, the children get to dress up. The boys wear tuxedos, and the girls put on a wedding gown and as a gif t, they will receive a friendship bracelet. The program teaches long-lasting friendship.”

According to Sims, the origins

of the Friendship Wedding started

in the 1800’s by Charles S. Stratton,

a celebrity dwarf who wore the stage

name “General Tom Thumb” in the

P.T. Barnum circus. Sims stated that

Stratton was a celebrity, who married

Lavinia Warren, in 1853 in New York.

Stratton.

“When I became employed a t the

learning center back in June of this year,

there was a lot of violence in the Altgeld

neighborhood. A lot of families were not

the pleased with having to lose loved

ones, so we wanted to bring some thing

positive to the community. We wanted

to take the children away from having to

deal with negative situations.”

Answers.com, an online information

center stated that a friendship wedding

is a ceremony between two friends. It

states that when best friends feel tha t

they have a strong connection or a deep

bond with each other the y could have a

friendship marriage. The center added

that the wedding isn't of ficial, but it is a

fun way to express friendship.

“The friendship program helps with

anger management problems. A lot of

children feed off what their parents

are facing. Some of the children might

experience a death of a family, and they

might come to school a little angry.

Usually, children that young do not

know how to express their emotions and

what they are feeling. They also do not

know how to express what they have

heard from family members or what is

going on in the ne ws,” Sims said.

Sims stated that a future goal for

the friendship wedding program is to

share the program with other head

start programs around the city; to teach

children the meaning of friendship, and

to offer them a positive approach when

dealing with negative circumstances.

“I think it would be very positive to

take this initiative to other learning

institutes; to teach these skills early on

in place of the violence that’s going on

every day. This program marks our first

effort, but we will branch off and do

other things with this initiative.”

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