What Makes our Actor-Educators Celebrities

When actor-educators join RESPECT, we inform them that they become mini-celebrities in the community.  Children “grow up” seeing RESPECT starting in pre-school or kindergarten and often look forward to our team returning to their schools with age-appropriate programs for them as they advance through elementary, middle, and high school.  Kids get used to seeing our actor-educators and are excited when they spot our staff members outside of RESPECT program.  Such an instance recently happened to one of our newer actor-educators, Paige, closer to home than she expected.

When at a family gathering, Paige learned that her little cousin, Lily, was a student at a school where we had recently performed.  Paige asked Lily if she saw a play at her school a few days ago.  Lily responded with enthusiasm that she remembered “Dr. Smartypants” from the show (the plays’ eccentric lead character) and the messages that were taught during the event.  Lily’s mom explained to Paige that Lily was talking about the RESPECT show for three whole days, and that in addition to the general enjoyment of the program, she was excited that in the play there was a character named “Lily” just like her.

Lily

Imagine the look on little Lily’s face when Paige revealed that she in fact played the part of “Lily” that day at the school!  Lily and Paige had a good time after that reenacting scenes from the program and practicing being nice.

The formal evaluations and feedback that RESPECT receives is always helpful in demonstrating the impact we are making with students, but these informal moments of seeing kids excited about learning about healthy relationships and kindness puts the cherry on top!