ALBANY, NY — A duo of superheroes without capes from “The World’s #1 Youth Leadership Team” recently returned to Albany with messages about HOPE (Hold On, Possibilities Exist) for students at Academy of the Holy Names.
Tom Murphy & Sgt. Rick Yarosh, of Sweethearts & Heroes visited Academy of The Holy Names — the region’s only all-girls, private, independent Catholic school — on Thursday, November 13.
Sweethearts & Heroes aims to prevent hopelessness, bullying and suicide by providing dynamic, inspiring content that centers on the human interaction skills necessary for schools and other organizations to change all aspects of their culture — skills such as empathy, compassion and teamwork.
Sweethearts & Heroes’ central team of traveling presenters includes Murphy, Director and Founder, of St. Albans, VT; Yarosh, a HOPE expert, Purple Heart recipient and motivational speaker from New York who was burned severely while serving in Iraq; and Pat Fish, BRAVE & Circle Specialist. Josiah McKeon and Chad Althiser are also on the traveling team.
On November 13, Murphy and Yarosh delivered their anti-bullying assembly (PHOTOS) to Academy of the Holy Names students and then introduced them to The Magic of Circle.
Additionally, Academy of the Holy Names’ sixth-grader Vivienne Ciccone interviewed Murphy and Yarosh for this video as the school’s “Chief Sweethearts Correspondent.”
“We are grateful to Albany County Legislator Andrew Joyce for his support which helped secure grant funding which allowed for Tom and Rick to be here to speak with our students,” said Dr. Martin Kilbridge, AHN’s President. “Particularly in an all-girls environment, it’s imperative for them to grow in confidence, voice, and leadership. We, too, want these young women to be heroes in their everyday lives.”
For more than 16 years, Sweethearts & Heroes has presented what Murphy calls “‘the ‘stop, drop and roll’ of bullying” to more than 2.5 million students in school districts from New England to Hawaii and north into Canada. Sweethearts & Heroes also tailors its presentations and professional development workshops for businesses, non-profits and civic groups. Murphy said, “We go where we’re needed. That’s what heroes do.”
Sweethearts & Heroes’ vast menu of services includes:
- a profound, engaging signature presentation that calls for HOPE (Hold On, Possibilities Exist), Empathy and Action;
- Circle, which is built on the ancient ritual of communicating in a circle to build compassion and empathy;
- the BRAVE Youth Leadership System, which trains older students in bully drills that they, in turn, teach to students in lower grades, thus creating a sustainable, student-directed initiative;
- and The Kennedy Columbus STEP Program (Student Teacher Empathy Program), which teaches high school students how to present Sweethearts & Heroes’ signature assemblies for students in grades K-2 and 3-5.
Sweethearts & Heroes’ books are Boredom School: For Those Bored in School, a collection of captivating, humorous and thought-provoking poems by Fish; 13 Pillows For Affective Teachers, a novel by Murphy and Brian McKeon — also of Vermont — that covers the themes of HOPE, Empathy and Action in the Sweethearts & Heroes curriculum; and A Bridge Named Amos, by Sgt. Yarosh, a heartwarming story about his late service dog and personal hero, Amos.
Sweethearts & Heroes has also created The HOPE Classroom, a digital subscription service designed for various grade levels and different school sizes. This value-packed offering can allow Sweethearts & Heroes to be in every school in the U.S. For more on Sweethearts & Heroes, find them here on social media.