“People tell you that you’re going to be the leaders of tomorrow, but you’re not. It’s not true,” Dan Ekonen, Director of School Initiatives for Special Olympic of Michigan, told student officers of the Panther Chapter of the National Honor Society. “You are students who are the leaders of today.”

This statement electrified the room during a meeting to discuss a $3,000 grant that the group had just earned to fund Project Unify, a program to help with some core activities that form a youth activation committee, consisting of students with and without disabilities according to adviser Elizabeth Cyr.

“It’s really exciting for me, because I get to see it go from those initial meetings to being in action,” Ekonen said. “With Stockbridge it’s more exciting because it’s my old school. When I spoke to Ms. Cyr and Mr. Cook, they were excited about it. It’s really exciting to see it go from start to finish at my old school,” said Ekonen, a 2003 Stockbridge alum.

A core piece of the program is whole school engagement through the anti-bullying, R-word campaign that is used by students to send out a message and influence their school to not use this word.

“You sign up saying a pledge that you’re not going to use the R-word. It’s to help stop using ‘retarded’ all together and spread advocacy that it’s a hurtful word,” National Honor Society president Savahanna Mancini said.

“It’s a good awakening for others to really engage in it. When other people are engaged in it they won’t use it because there’s more people doing it also,” Mancini added.

On March 27, several students traveled to Michigan State University for Hoopsfest to understand how a Special Olympics event team is organized. In the coming weeks they will be forming the Youth Activation Committee (YAC) to make decisions about Project Unify activities for next school year.

“I have never heard of Project Unify but think that would be awesome if it started here, because I have an autistic sister and everyone judges her and makes fun of her,” freshmen Zabrina Yanella said. “Some boys in my grade call her a ‘retard,’ and say it doesn’t matter it’s not that bad of a word,” Yanella added.

NHS officer Rachel Culver thinks that attitude will change in the coming year. “Being a part of the group that went to MSU opened my eyes so much,” Culver said. “It made me realize how, even though we are a small school, I believe we can make an impact. I can’t wait for the movement to start making its way through our school.”