On January 17, 50 elementary school students attended the Global Game Changers Peace Project Lesson at the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, Ky. to honor what would have been Ali’s 75th birthday. Ali was famous for saying, “Service to others is the rent I pay for my room here on Earth.”
With that in mind, part of the day included learning how to share recognition with loved ones. The OGO Jackpot of Acknowledgement and Recognition (J.A.R.) was used to teach students about how we can show our appreciation.
Starting on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on January 16 and through February 24, 450 students at 14 YMCA afterschool programs will continue celebrating King’s 40 Days of Peace. OGO J.A.R.s will also be at the heart of lessons taught on those days, utilized as a tool to celebrate members of the community through recognition. Students can honor multiple people in their lives who should be honored with an OGO J.A.R. They’ll be able to write messages of thanks and inspiration to their honorees on the OGO strips, and then place them in the J.A.R. Later they will share the strips with the class and the persons they honor.
Site directors for the afterschool programs will also be encouraged to fill out strips about each child in attendance. After, the directors will read the strips aloud to the students and talk with them about how it feels to be recognized and how they might give recognition to others to inspire them as well. We’re excited just thinking about all of the recognition happening through this wonderful program.
The Peace Project Lessons are being provided through a grant from Service for Peace and the Corporation for National and Community Service, in partnership with OGO. We are happy to take part in the skill-building opportunities that Global Game Changers offers to students. These younger generations will be the ones who carry the OGO message into the future.
Global Game Changers provides enriching lessons to students with in-school and afterschool programs. The organization helps young and underserved children in kindergarten through fifth grade learn how to engage with their communities, improve their reading skills, and develop important social skills. One of their most important efforts is to get these children to Ignite Good!®, or do something nice for someone without expecting something in return.