PROLOGUE--The Birth of The Empathy Project: A Patagonia Collaboration
- Voices from the Border
- 3 days ago
- 6 min read
~ by India Aubry
White Bird Event Family Activities (photo credit: Sondra Porter)
It started with a conversation. (Doesn't everything?) And since I love origin stories, I'm excited to tell this one. Cassina Farley, art teacher and director of the Patagonia Creative Arts Association/Tin Shed Theater, and I were having a planning meeting about the Luis Urrea/Gary Nabhan Peek Behind the Curtain event early last year. The conversation turned toward the lack of compassion and empathy that has been on full display in our nation. We diagnosed it as an "empathy deficit" and mused about how to restore basic kindness in a world so clearly in need of it.
I had just seen the movie White Bird, a beautiful film featuring Helen Mirren and Gillian Anderson that tells the story of Mirren's character, Sara, a Jewish girl in Nazi-occupied France whose life was saved by an act of kindness from a schoolmate, Julian, who was also bullied for wearing a brace and using a crutch as a result of having polio. The story unfolds from there, flashing back and forth between Sara relaying the story of extraordinary courage to Julian's namesake, her own grandson, who had recently been expelled from school for mistreating a classmate, and her time in hiding in France, in Julian's family's care. As the movie is rated family-friendly and appropriate for children (11+) and adults, I suggested to Cassina that it might be a good one to screen at the Tin Shed Theater. We tucked the idea in our pockets and carried on with the business at hand.
As the months rolled on, Cassina and I continued to return to the White Bird touchstone in our conversations. There was something cooking in the back of our minds. By summer, the contours of the idea began to come into focus. It was more than just a one-time screening of a movie; it was an opportunity for an ongoing collaborative project. Between us, we dubbed the working title, The Empathy Project, but equivocated about officially calling it that out of concern, in these strange times, using the word "empathy" would be too controversial. (Crazy, I know.) Eventually, the decision was made to call a spade, a spade, and stand proudly behind the word and the project.
As an art teacher, Cassina is connected to other teachers in our community. She reached out to Kate Peake, the middle school English teacher, and discussed the idea of including the White Bird book series that the movie is based on, a graphic novel, and a regular novel by R.J. Palacio, in a future semester curriculum. Reading and discussing the books could be paired with a private screening of the movie for the middle school classes. Not only did Kate enthusiastically embrace the idea, but it was also then discovered that the middle school History teacher was already planning a field trip to the Tucson Jewish Museum and Holocaust Center in February of 2026, dovetailing into the White Bird curriculum brilliantly. And thus, The Empathy Project pilot program was off and running for the winter semester.
Plans are in the works to continue and expand the project. The first installment, centering on White Bird, was funded by PCAA, and Cassina is already working to secure grants that directly support The Empathy Project moving forward, including funds to buy more books for each semester. This first initiative marks the beginning of activities that will take place this summer and next school year. She adds, "I've included this new project into our Learning through the Arts programming. This will join our Art Makers, Club Theater, and Summer Art Camp offerings and will add a literacy component back to our programming." The project aims to evolve and be evergreen, so 6th, 7th , and 8th graders will have empathy and kindness units in all three years of middle school.
As part of the broader vision for the project and in addition to the middle school curriculum initiatives, we intend to bring the project to the community wherever possible as well. That will take the form of public film screenings and any other ways that we can dream up to engage Patagonia and the surrounding area with the program.
We also decided it would be a natural fit and a wonderful opportunity to include Anna Coleman, director of the Patagonia Youth Enrichment Center (PYEC) and her daughter, Caitlyn Coleman, program coordinator, who both readily accepted the offer to be involved. Anna explains, "learning how to acknowledge another person’s feelings, struggles, and experiences without judging and holding space for one another when needed are key growth points for each of our kids.”
Voices from the Border is very excited about this project and proud to partner with the PCAA and PYEC as an investment in our local youth, who are our future parents, teachers, leaders, and legislators.
White Bird: The Empathy Project Flagship Event
The launch of The Empathy Project, featuring a public screening of White Bird, snacks, and family activities, came together beautifully on January 30th at the Tin Shed Theater.
Kindness is Courageous/Kindness is Contagious stickers were given to everyone. Oilcloth-covered tables with art supplies were set up in the courtyard, where participants could make buttons or paint wooden hearts with kindness-affirming messages before the film. Also, fabric squares were available for drawing images of welcome and inclusivity that will be sewn into Welcome Quilts, a now-national project of Voices from the Border. Made by volunteer quilters, these quilts are then displayed in public spaces, sending uniquely personal messages of support to immigrants around the country.
The Patagonia Youth Enrichment Center provided a nourishing assortment of refreshments along with the wooden hearts.
“I loved watching the movie attendees decorate the wooden hearts with positive messages to spread out into the community,” Coleman said. “The hearts were a project that we (PYEC) started at the beginning of the COVID shutdown, but since we couldn’t gather the youth, they sat in a box until India, and I met regarding The Empathy Project.”
The movie was very well received, and there were barely any dry eyes in the audience. Several in attendance wanted to know when the next event would be, and that was the best punctuation mark on a very lovely inaugural event.
EPILOGUE--The White Bird Unit Wraps Up and What's NextAt the time of this writing, the White Bird unit, featuring the two books by R.J. Palacio, the private film screening for the students, and the field trip, have concluded, and Cassina reports that "the students loved it." Regarding the Tucson Jewish Museum and Holocaust Center, she said: "It was a great field trip, and we were lucky enough to hear from the daughter of two Holocaust survivors—very powerful." Additionally, on Valentine's Day, Cassina hung the wooden hearts with positive messages that were created by attendees of the White Bird event around town with Tallen and Sara. Tallen is a developmentally disabled senior at Patagonia Union High School who goes to the art center twice per week with his one-on-one caregiver, Sara. Cassina and Sara create projects tailored for Tallen to help him transition from high school and introduce him to the community. Hanging the hearts around town together gave Tallen the opportunity to interact with members of the community, including several business owners. Plans are in the works for making The Empathy Project the theme for this year's Patagonia's Youth Summer Art Camp (K-6th grade) in June, including designing a special float for the local Fourth of July Parade. Cassina told me that she's "mad at America right now" and feeling resistant to patriotic floats. So she has a whole other concept in mind, possibly repurposing Bad Bunny's now immortal words for a "TOGETHER, We Are America" theme, including costumes and accessories from the theater department that the kids can wear on the float. (¡Viva la resistencia!) We are also making plans to host another family film screening this summer. We will of course work in concert with our other partner, the Patagonia Youth Enrichment Center, and see what Good Trouble we can get up to. Stay tuned for updates on the progress of this collaboration that will include kindness-focused murals in community spaces, family-friendly film screenings and activities, and much more—the sky is the limit when imagination meets heart-centered intention. |
If this is a concept you would like to replicate in your own community and have questions, please reach out to us. Or if you have ideas about middle school age-appropriate kindness/empathy/compassion books and/or movies that you'd like to share, please contact us at voices@voicesfromtheborder.us.
Donations to help fund The Empathy Project can be given to the Patagonia Creative Arts Association. Make checks out to the PCAA and add "Empathy Project" in the memo line. You can also sponsor a class set of books (approx. $300). Send checks to the PCAA at PO Box 1248 Patagonia, AZ 85624.
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