Start with Hello is “teaching empathy and empowering students to end social isolation” according to the Sandy Hook Promise. In honor of the precious lives that were lost at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, the Sandy Hook Promise protects America’s children from gun violence. Every day there is some type of gun violence in the world. As of September 2021, there have been 170 school shootings in the United States. According to the Statista Research Department, “this was the highest number of school shootings since 1970.” As a society, we may stop hearing about the issue on the news but it never stops around the nation.
According to CNN, on December 14, 2012, 20 students and six adults were killed at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. About 9:30 a.m. that day the school had an announcement read over the loudspeaker to students that gunshots were heard across the school. On this tragic day a substitute teacher, Lauren Rousseau was filling in for a teacher on maternity leave. In that same classroom, the gunman shot all 14 students that were present. In another classroom, six more students lost their precious lives to gun violence.
All these students were ages 6 to 7 and their lives were taken away too soon. They didn’t get the time to enjoy their youth, see their friends grow up with them, and experience this lovely story we call life. In honor of the students and the teachers who lost their lives “the mission of Sandy Hook Promise is to end school shootings and create a culture change that prevents violence and other harmful acts that hurt children” according to their website.
Here on campus MCC ran the Start With Hello Week. They prepared to host this wonderful event and reached out to students. Students united to participate in the spirit days and break isolation around our school. Instagram was used as a way to show one’s participation and make new friends. Start with hello is a national mental wellness campaign started by the Sandy Hook Foundation. According to Micheal Silva (Senior), “it took us about a month from concept to planning. We were working all the way up till the week. There were a lot of moving parts, but everyone worked together and made it a successful week.” Many students enjoyed the events by participating in each day’s spirit activity.

This event is an important week throughout all schools in the country. It shows the importance of mental health awareness and making sure everyone has a friend. Micheal says “it’s shedding light on the topic of mental health, MCC is all about getting those conversations going in our campus.” The focus of this spirit week was to allow students to reach out to other students and grow as a community. Many participated including Micheal, “Yes! I love participating in our school spirit weeks especially when we host them. I feel like it lightens up the atmosphere at school.” The most important spirit day to Micheal was wearing green. Students wore green to bring awareness to mental health around campus.
Along with this spirit week, NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) collaborated with MCC to make this event special. NAMI at North is a branch focused on spreading awareness for mental health challenges. According to one of NAMI’s co-presidents, Lizzy Cisneros-Oakes (Junior), “NAMI collaborated with MCC because we felt it was important to spread positivity and to remind everyone to be kind especially in response to such an awful incident (as Sandy Hook.) It is important to have this week because we need to spread awareness about this sort of issue so everyone remembers to be kind and stay safe. Just like Micheal, Lizzy’s favorite spirit day was to wear green too. Throughout the country, Start With Hello is involved in all types of schools. Lizzy states, “I think every school should have a Start With Hello week to spread awareness about this incident and to remind everyone to spread kindness.”

John W. North began Start With Hello on September 20, 2021. There were five spirit days. On Monday students were encouraged to take and post a picture with a new friend. Tuesday was twin day and the North community was enticed to place compliments around campus for a chance to win a prize. Wednesday was a challenge to make a new friend. Thursday was a day to unify support of Mental Health Awareness. The student body and staff wore green and found Mr. Fraley or Ms. Plasencia to tag MCC on their Instagram story. To round out the week students wore sports-related attire to show we’re all part of a team. On Friday during lunch, no one sat alone.