Vernon resident and area superintendent rewards students

ANDOVER — Students and staff at Florence M. Burd Elementary School in Andover on June 22 topped off the year by creating a human sundae, featuring Vernon resident Interim Superintendent Anthony Macerino.

The exciting event was the culmination of a month of activities that were part of a school-wide initiative called the Great Kindness Challenge.

Kindness Month organizers Jen Yawger and Tracey Salvatore engaged and motivated the students to actively seek out kindness by promising to build the sundae at the end of the year if students documented 10,000 acts of kindness.

Each layer of the ice cream concoction was symbolic of the students' kindness journey. From freezing out meanness in the school to drizzling sweetness over each day, the students finally topped off the sundae by sprinkling kindness on top.

Macerino concluded the gathering by challenging the students to continue their kind acts at home and into the next coming school year.