The lessons of Emma, Alyson, and Katie Hance, three young Floral Park girls who died in a car accident in 2009, are now helping change the lives of disabled fourth grade girls at the The Henry Viscardi School in Albertson.
The fourth graders recently completed Beautiful Me, a course developed by a foundation created to honor the three girls that encourages girls to appreciate their inner and outer beauty.
And the results at the Viscardi School were immediately apparent.
“The girls very much liked doing the projects and they did say they liked hearing the compliments. The fourth grade girls I spoke to said ‘I felt really confident’,” said Patricia Kuntzler, executive director of the Viscardi School Kuntzler. “The delivery and the emphasis on positive values and the de-emphasis of the media stereotype on what is beautiful is what stood out.”
The Beautiful Me program, which was developed three years ago, has been used at schools across the country to teach girls of all ages how to think positively about their bodies, their skills, and their relationships with others.
But in the case of the Viscardi school, the challenges were greater.
The school serves children with severe physical disabilities who often require life-sustaining medical treatment throughout the day, according to the school’s Web site. Most students at the school use power wheelchairs and augmentative communication technology to cope with one or more disabilities that include Cerebral Palsy, Muscular Dystrophy, Multiple Sclerosis, Spina Bifida, traumatic brain injury, Osteogenesis Imperfecta and Spinal Muscular Atrophy.
Kuntzler said in a society in which a person’s physical attributes are constantly emphasized, students like those at Viscardi experience negative comments more often than they receive positive ones.
“The idea that students here through this program learn to accept who they are, and that includes everything about them,” Kuntzler said. “And that includes the individuals they are with their talents and personalities and all their unique strengths and beauties.”
Kuntzler said fourth graders who went through the program said they’d like to do it again. And Kuntzler said second graders who heard about it told her they were looking forward to doing it. So, Kuntzler said, Beautiful Me will be continued as part of the Viscardi curriculum for both fourth and fifth graders.
The Beautiful Me program, created three years ago, is designed to be taught in three one-hour sessions by a qualified teacher or social worker focused on the interests and character of the three Hance girls, according to the Hance Family Foundation Web site. The foundation was created to honor the three girls after they were killed in an auto accident when their aunt drove a van they were riding in the wrong way on the Taconic State Parkway in 2009.
Beautiful Me is one of several self-realization programs the foundation has developed for young girls.
Two Floral Park residents, social worker Liz Monroe and educator Kate Tuffy, developed the Beautiful Me concept and brought it to Warren and Jackie Hance, parents of the three children who died.
“They wanted to bring something positive from this tragic event,” said Meredith Naughton, a spokeswoman for the Hance Family Foundation
Fourth grade teachers at the Viscardi School received an orientation in the program given by teachers from the Beautiful Me program, who also helped facilitate the one-hour sessions. The fourth grade girls started by discussing their favorite part of their bodies and wrote down single-sentence descriptions of what they liked about themselves, Naughton said.
Naughton said the students also discussed what they should be doing for themselves, and what is good for their own mental and physical well-being.
In the final phase of the course, the girls built little cardboard boxes and decorated them with written compliments they received from other girls in the group.
“We encourage girls to remember the compliments,” Naughton said.
The sessions also include role-playing games about understanding body language and discussions on topics like building friendships.
“We think it’s important to embrace yourself and celebrate yourself,” Kuntzler said.
“We have done the group with everyone from first graders to college students to adult women,” Naughton said.
She said the fourth grade teachers at Viscardi are now prepared to pass the Beautiful Me program on to other teachers at the school.
The Hance Family Foundation Web site says that approximately 6,000 girls and young women in the New York metro area, Chicago, and Philadelphia, have been guided through the Beautiful Me program to date.
