Feeling lonely? Sit on the Buddy Bench

We’ve all been in their shoes before — alone at the playground with no one to play with.

At Ruder Elementary School, they now have a “Buddy Bench,” a bench that kids can sit on if they need someone to play with. The idea came from brother and sister Amelia, 8, and Nolan, 6, Kavanagh.

They wrote a letter to Columbia Falls High School Shop teacher Ben Schaeffer earlier this year asking if students in his class would consider making a bench that would hold about five kids.

“A buddy bench is where kids can sit if they don’t have a friend. Other kids can come up to them and ask them to play, If two people are on the Buddy Bench they can be friends too ... It’s a good spot to help new kids make friends and not be lonely, like my brother and I have felt with moving to a new school,” Amelia said.

Schaeffer bought the materials out of his own pocket and four students, Kierstyn Skelton, Raina Crowell, Reusch Powell and Kayla Belston went to work fabricating the bench. It took them about a month to weld it together and give it a coat of Wildcat blue paint.

The four high school students all said they plan on pursuing careers in the welding or fabrication and repair field.

Schaeffer said overall, the girls are better welders than the boys in the program, which has about 80 students total.

“They’re a little more meticulous,” he said.

The welding program offers a host of certifications and, next year, they will look to work with local firm Applied Materials to start and apprenticeship program, Schaeffer said.

The bench will be put out into the playground later this summer — a concrete pad still needs to be put down to bolt the bench to.