Damar Hamlin injury helps teach elementary students lessons in kindness

HAMILTON, Ohio (WKRC) — Support for Damar Hamlin is pouring in from people all over the country, and even the youngest fans want to show they care.

Students at Ridgeway Elementary in Hamilton, Ohio, say it has been hard to process and think about what happened to Hamlin after he suffered cardiac arrest mid-game. Their principal and teachers stepped up to teach them an important lesson they can't get from a textbook.

Millions were watching when Hamlin collapsed on the field during Monday Night Football at Paycor Stadium; fourth grader Oakley Turner was amongst the youngest watching.

"We were surprised and we were hoping he would get better," Turner said.

Ridgeway Principal Kathy Wagonfield says she immediately knew they had to do something to help.

The whole world has wrapped themselves around this situation and I think it has promoted camaraderie and kindness and that's what we want to instill in our students as well," Wagonfield said.

So they put the students to work, writing to Hamlin, his family, the Bengals and the Bills and asking them to respond to quotes about the importance of kindness.

Unexpected kindness is the most powerful, least costly and most underrated agent of human change," Turner wrote.

That class of fourth graders shared those kind words with another class in Buffalo, New York, home of the Bills.

Dear Damar Hamlin, I'm so happy you're doing ok," one student read over Zoom.

Those students in Buffalo are also trying to process what happened hundreds of miles away.

"In any situation, we promote positivity and we promote action, not just talking about it, but doing something," Wagonfield said.

This includes writing letters, dressing up in Bengals and Bills gear for school on Friday and the Zoom call.

Poor Damar went through all of this, but we've all come together and realized it's not about football it's about kindness and loving each other, and getting to know each other," Wagonfield said to both the classes in Buffalo and Hamilton.

These lessons help them answer a very important question: what does kindness actually mean?

"It means love, it means hope, and hope is all around you," Clements wrote.

Wagonfield says around this time last year they were celebrating the Bengals doing well, as they were heading to the playoffs and Super Bowl. She says what they are doing now teaches the students to be there for others in the good and in the bad times.

The classes in Hamilton and Buffalo plan to meet again in March, to share how they have spread kindness between now and then.