Building a culture of good at North Elementary
Charles H. Featherstone/The Columbia Basin Herald North Elementary School Principal Kelly Frederick on Friday tells her students to “build a culture of good” by being kind, respectful, and persistent.
MOSES LAKE — It was the assembly North Elementary had hoped to have at the beginning of the week.
“Even your teachers had teachers, it’s important to have someone help you along the way,” Jessica Benedict told a group of grade school students. “I had a really good English teacher who spent a lot of time with me.”
And so Benedict, manager of Verizon retailer TCC in Moses Lake, arrived at North Elementary school bearing baskets of school supplies — including paper, pencils, pens, colored markers, glue, scissors — for North’s teachers as a way of demonstrating the company’s commitment to supporting education in the community it does business in.
“At TCC, we do things other than sell cellphones and tablets, we like to give back to the community,” Benedict told the gathered students.
It is also a way to show teachers they are appreciated, Benedict added.
The assembly was supposed to have featured Ryan McCarty, co-author with TCC CEO Scott Moorehead of the book Build a Culture of Good, which shows “how a philanthropic mission that is deeply connected to every facet of the organization is good for customers, employees, and the community,” according to the Culture of Good website.
Moorehead and McCarty are on a nationwide tour to promote the book, donate school supplies, and encourage everyone to inspire employees to both change the world for the better and connect a company’s bottom line to “a higher purpose.” However, bad weather and a tight schedule forced them to miss Moses Lake.
Benedict told the North Elementary students that building a “Culture of Good” means helping friends and family, and “people we don’t know who might need our help.”
“It’s good to be a good helper,” she said.
The school also honored 11 students for, in the words of Principal Kelly Frederick, showing everyone at North what a culture of good looks like — it’s respectful to students and staff, helps others, and keeps trying despite the difficulties.
“If you don’t know what to do, look at these kids and do what they are doing,” Frederick said.
Charles H. Featherstone can be reached via email at countygvt@columbiabasinherald.com.