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Anchored4Life at Yorktown Elementary

Stylized logo featuring a blue house outline with a peaked roof and an open doorway, containing a red abstract person shape inside.

Anchored4Life at Yorktown Elementary 

Yorktown Elementary School has had an active Anchored4Life club since December 2021.  Anchored4Life is a world-wide program that is funded by the U.S. Navy that fosters peer-to-peer support to students during times of transition (Home Page - Anchored4Life). This program develops leadership skills, enhances life skills, builds confidence, and reinforces team building for all youth who attend Yorktown Elementary School. Anchored4Life Team Leaders are students trained to welcome new students to Yorktown Elementary School, build connections with peers, offer support during transitions and set a good example for other Yorktown Elementary School students.   

Students were nominated to be Team Leaders by their teachers and received parent permission to participate.  

One of the vital supports that our Anchored4Life Team Leaders provide is handing out Anchored4Life kits.  Team Leaders provide Welcome Backpacks to newly enrolled students to develop peer connections and create a sense of welcome as students are adjusting to their new school.  Anchored4Life Kits are distributed to those students who are coping with a geographical military move, military deployment, separation, return from deployment or who have a returning wounded military family member. Kits are also available for any student whose family is working through a divorce or loss of a loved one. These Kits include situation-specific information, a video, a journal, and other information for the student to share with the family.  Team Leaders are trained regarding introducing themselves, finding something in common, and building connections with students as they are distributing kits.  During conversations and kit distribution, students offer support and encourage resilience during difficult and sometimes stressful transitions.   

In the foreground, three young boys stand near a bulletin board in a school hallway, while in the background, other children and an adult walk past.

Another feature of the Anchored4Life peer-to-peer support is giving tours.  Our student Team Leaders participate in giving tours for new students and parents at our kindergarten kick off events.  Student Team Leaders also give newly enrolled 4th and 5th grade students tours when asked.  Newly arriving families are given tours by the classroom teacher, and students are offered tours as well – and the Anchored4Life club is happy to provide a peer-to-peer tour that focuses on welcoming the student to our Falcon Family!    

 The Anchored4Life Team Leaders also share character development quotes throughout the year.  The quotes chosen by student Team Leaders are placed in kits and given when new students arrive as well as when students are relocating to a new school from Yorktown Elementary. The quotes that are given are hand-decorated and written out so that students can keep the encouraging words with them as they are journeying through a transition.  In addition to the quotes that are shared in the welcome kits and relocation kits, quotes are chosen and displayed on a large screen television in our main hallway outside of the cafeteria.  Student Team leaders choose quotes about times of transition, welcoming others, being kind and believing in themselves.  These displayed quotes help promote a culture that welcomes new students as they come to our school and start building relationships.  

The Anchored4Life club plays an important role in welcoming new students and creating a climate of openness in our school building.  Students are seen as leaders who help welcome new students by offering a seat at lunch, someone to play with at recess and a friendly face who can answer questions.    

Another feature of the Anchored4Life club is a student service project. During the 2023-2024 school year, the Anchored4Life club organized and implemented a cereal drive and domino run! The students and staff collected 627 boxes of cereal to be donated to a local foodbank.  The Anchored4Life club collected and counted all of the cereal before helping to set up a domino run around the school building. Students gathered in the hallways to watch the cereal domino run before it was all donated to the Virginia Peninsula Food Bank.  During the 2024-2025 school year, our Anchored4Life club joined forces with the Yorktown Middle School and York High School Student Council Associations and made gratitude bags for first responders who worked over the holidays.  Students in 4th – 12th grade worked together to decorate bags, write notes of thanks and fill the bags for our county’s first responders.  It was a fun and engaging morning of service and building connections.  Later in the school year, in April 2025, our Anchored4Life Team Leaders made posters thanking our military connected students and their families.  The posters were displayed during our Military Family Appreciation Breakfast and Parade during our Month of the Military Child observances.    

Anchored 4 Life Team Leaders making posters of support for the Military Family Appreciation Breakfast and Parade in April 2025:  

Three photos show students working in groups at classroom tables, using markers and paper to create and build tall structures together.

Anchored 4 Life Team Leaders decorate bags, write notes of thanks and fill the bags for our county’s first responders over the holidays:  

Two photos show a student with a paper bag and placing items into a box on a table in a busy classroom.
Two photos show students at classroom tables—one group seated together and another packing snack items into paper bags from boxes on a table.
A large group of children and young adults are posing for a photo in a classroom with a projector and screen in the background.