Adirondack Central School District Educators kick off the 2024-2025 school year with Sweethearts & Heroes

Adirondack Central School District’s faculty and staff will open the new school year with an amazing team of superheroes, learning how to activate compassion, empathy and HOPE in their classrooms and beyond.

Sweethearts & Heroes will be in the Adirondack Central School District (ACSD) on Wednesday, Aug. 28 and Thursday, Aug. 29. 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 offers 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; and the B.R.A.V.E. Youth Leadership Program, which trains older students in bully drills that they, in turn, teach to students in lower grades.

Sweethearts & Heroes’ central team of traveling presenters includes: Tom Murphy, Director and Founder, of St. Albans, VT; Ret. U.S. Army Sgt. Rick Yarosh, a HOPE expert, Purple Heart recipient and motivational speaker from New York who was burned severely while serving in Iraq; and Pat Fish, B.R.A.V.E. Program Director & Circle Specialist, also of New York.

 •Aug. 28 — Adirondack Superintendent’s Conference Day (Adirondack CSD): Murphy and Yarosh will present their powerful keynote assembly to the entire faculty and staff.  Then, Murphy will co-facilitate Circle activities and trainings with other Sweethearts & Heroes teammates.

•Aug. 29 — Murphy and other Sweethearts & Heroes teammates will lead a day of Circle Trainings for Adirondack CSD educators.

“Sweethearts & Heroes doesn’t focus on creating another SEL (social-emotional learning) or Human Skills curriculum,” Murphy said. “Instead, we implement practices and habits that genuinely empower and nurture students’ growth. When people genuinely connect on a daily basis, they naturally develop the capacity for more meaningful interactions and thoughtful responses. Prioritizing human skills shouldn’t require extra preparation or a separate curriculum — it should be our primary focus. After all, before we can effectively teach academic subjects, we must first be teachers of humanity.”

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.

Last spring, Sweethearts & Heroes released Boredom School: For Those Bored in School, a collection of captivating, humorous and thought-provoking poems by Pat Fish. The book offers a unique perspective on the monotonous trials of school and the students who yearn for change.

Sweethearts & Heroes’ first book, 13 Pillows For Affective Teachers, is a novel that covers the themes of HOPE, Empathy and Action in the Sweethearts & Heroes curriculum. 13 Pillows is also based on real students and teachers that Sweethearts & Heroes has encountered. Murphy co-wrote the book with Brian McKeon, of New York.