Local students make residents smile, one random act of kindness at a time

[July 22, 2020: WBNG News 12]

The Liberty Program comprised of Binghamton University, Binghamton Highschool and some Endicott students were working to put smiles on people's faces in Binghamton Wednesday morning.

Liberty Partnership is a New York State Department of Education program through Binghamton University with the project housed in Binghamton City School District, Union-Endicott, Susquehanna Valley and Johnson City schools.

Every summer students come up with a theme to identify issues in the community and address them.

This year's theme was "Separate but Together." Students felt separated from their community during the quarantine.

After consulting with counselors of the program they were cleared to center their project around this theme.

At Confluence Park in Binghamton, students gathered to put together water bottle kits, carnations with affirmation cards, literacy kits and homeless kits.

"They decided to do water bottle kits for little kits that have goodies inside. They also made up bigger water bottles for adults that have gift cards, essentials and treats inside, really just to put a smile on people's faces," said Autumn Loke the Liberty Partnership Lead Student Counselor.

The students hit the streets to distribute the carnations and water bottle kits, hoping to make a positive impact in the lives of random citizens.

"We want to let everyone know that even with quarantine people may feel alone at times, that we are all going through this together. So this summer we created ways to go around and do random acts of kindness to aid the less fortunate and those who have been impacted by COVID-19," said Xymirer Thomas a Teen Leader with the project.

In a Facebook post, the Binghamton City School District said that Social Distancing and Sanitizing procedures were being practiced.... MORE