Students in need of friends at North Sashabaw Elementary have a rainbow-hued Buddy Bench to sit at, thanks to sisters Eva and Charley Bousho of Clarkston.
The idea behind buddy benches is, if a child sits on it alone, it’s a signal to other kids to ask him or her to play. Eva and Charley wrote a proposal for the bench and presented it to Principal Jennifer Johnson last fall.
Then, they wrote out a plan for an online GoFundMe campaign to raise funds for the bench. In just a few weeks, they had the funding they needed, said their mother, Stacey Bousho.
The girls ordered the bench during the winter and assembled it in the spring. The bench was installed on the playground in late May and dedicated as a memorial to their late grandparents, Tony and Chris Bowers, and Ian Tracey – two of his three boys attend school at NSE.
The colorful bench is inscribed with the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Kids because they are a Leadership school, Stacey said.

~Phil Custodio