The “One Book, One School” program hosted by the Voorhees Middle School held its spring kick-off on May 20.
The book chosen for this year is “Wonder” by R.J. Palacio. The book follows a middle school student affected by craniofacial deformity and the ways he overcomes the obstacles of living with the condition.
The spring kick-off served as an opportunity to introduce the lessons the students will learn from reading the book. To do this, a collection of speakers was brought in to talk with the students.
The speakers all had first-hand knowledge of the effects craniofacial deformity can have.
Daniel Pfeiffer and Connor Loescher both suffer from cranial facial conditions. They discussed the ways in which the condition has affected their lives and gave the students advice about how to deal with people who have the disease.
“Approach us as people,” Pfeiffer said. “Don’t judge us based on our appearance. Treat us the way you would treat any other person.”
Both Pfeiffer and Loescher agreed that the book was accurate in its portrayal of life with the condition.
“It’s a good book,” Loescher said. “I think the students can use the book to look past the appearance of the people they meet in their lives.”
Lindsay Condefer also presented at the program with her dog Lentil, who was born with a severe cleft hard/ soft palate, lip and nose. He was brought to Condefer, who founded the nonprofit Street Tails Animal Rescue in 2001. Lentil has gone on to become a viral sensation, leading Condefer to change her vision.
“Once Lentil became such a star, I decided to use it to spread awareness about cranial facial conditions,” Condefer said. “People see Lentil and think he’s cute and yet people who have this disease are looked down at.”
There was one thread that ran through each of the speaker’s presentations and that was kindness.
“When in doubt, you can never go wrong with kindness,” Dorothy Holmes, the VMS librarian, said.
The theme of the program was “Choose Kind” and students were given stickers, tattoos and wristbands to spread the word.
“I hope this theme goes beyond just this program,” Holmes said. “It would be great if this could become the motto for this class of students for the rest of their lives.”
The theme will certainly continue to circulate. The students are required to read the book over the summer, and there will be homework and discussions about the book when the students return in September. Oct. 10 will be the last day the students work with the book and Holmes is planning to do something big to celebrate.
“I’m thinking big,” Holmes said. “The week of Oct. 10 will be perfect because it will fall right in line with National Bullying Week, so I’m going to try to celebrate the humanity and courage that was taught in the book.”
Nothing has been scheduled as of yet, but Holmes is planning to meet with her committee soon to begin developing the program.
