The third graders of Riverside School lead an annual campaign to support the sister city commitment made by the City of Oneonta's mayor, Kim Muller, in 1999. A major focus of the Riverside School's third-grade social studies program is "Compassion in Action," a theme that takes root in September and blossoms each spring. Students study India with a specific focus on Oneonta's sister city, Dundlod, a small village in the northwest state of Rajasthan. Through interdisciplinary and project-based inquiries, students hone their social activism skills and experience social responsibility. They plan and implement community events, fundraisers, and informational campaigns which have grown to include other elementary schools and two local colleges.

As young children become aware of the misfortune of other people their age, they react in a natural way: they want to take action. Their compassion reflects awareness of their own good fortune and a desire to help others live healthier, richer lives. In a school with a very high poverty-rate, it is especially heart-warming to see our students work together with great spirit to help less fortunate children on the other side of the planet.

Over the years, Riverside School's third graders have raised money through bake sales, a car wash, collecting change, selling student-made art, Indian dessert tastings, performances of classical Indian music, Bollywood dance party, making traditional block-printed stationery, classical Indian dance performances (Kathak), an annual community-wide Sister City Celebration, and most recently a Penny Art Rangoli Project. For this effort, each class collected pennies while studying the Indian art form called rangoli. Using their pennies, each class created an intricate design on the cafeteria floor. When completed, all the classes were invited to the Penny Art Rangoli Gallery. We collected $450.00!  Mr. Sider, a third-grade teacher and liaison to the Ninash Foundation, delivered the money in-person to the Indo-International School in January 2009. The money was used to buy pencils and replenish the Indo-International School's library book collection.

As third-graders move along through the school system, they never forget the year that they did something meaningful. Ask a former third-grader from Riverside School, and she will tell you how exciting and rewarding it was to make a difference in someone's life. The difference is real, and our students never forget. The children in India, born into lives of desperate poverty by the mere accident of birth, are helped by our third graders. Thankfully, the roots that we plant each September blossom in the spring. As the third-graders grow and eventually graduate from public school, we believe the blossoms turn to seed, and the seeds of compassion are spread as they follow their own paths in the world. That is compassion in action.