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Upper St. Clair school hosts former Steeler for Random Acts of Kindness Week

By Harry Funk 3 min read
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Wes Lyons speak during an assembly at Boyce Middle School to wrap up Random Act of Kindness Week.

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Wes Lyons towers over a group of Boyce Middle School students.

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Wes Lyons and Boyce Middle School physical education teacher Dana Mellinger both are Woodland Hills High School graduates.

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Sxith-grader Emma Redlinger shows off her shirt autographed by Wes Lyons.

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Harry Funk / Staff Boyce Middle School guidance counselor Amy Antonio enjoys Wes Lyons’ talk.

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Wes Lyons signs an autograph.

Boyce Middle School students certainly looked up to Wesley Lyons during his Feb. 19 visit.

Well, because he’s 6 feet 8 inches tall, practically everyone looks up to him in the physical sense. But the former Pittsburgh Steelers receiver provides plenty of reason to consider him a role model.

Lyons, who spoke at an assembly culminating Boyce’s Random Acts of Kindness Week, practices what the school has been preaching.

“I was kind throughout high school, and to this day some of my high school teachers and high school principals, they still help me out,” he said. “Especially now, working with students, they give me advice and they really work with me. And that just came from me being kind at a very young age.”

His work with students is through The Pursuit, an educational program he developed in 2013, about the time he turned 25 and following stints with the Steelers, New York Jets in the Arena Football League.

The self-described “young man who grew up in the slums of North Braddock” and Woodland Hills High School graduate wants to help children in less-than-ideal circumstances develop skills in decision-making, writing and communication, and comprehension, with the goal of giving them better opportunities for success.

And showing benevolence is an integral part of the equation.

“By developing that now, creating a habit of being kind, I think that will carry the students a very long way,” Lyons said.

During the assembly, he encouraged the Boyce students to follow five steps toward making “great decisions,” advice that can apply to people of any age.

• Stay calm. “When you’re making a decision, you don’t want to make an emotional decision based on anger, your temper or whatever may happen.”

• Gain knowledge. “You want to analyze the situation before you make a decision.”

• Weigh the pros and cons. “If the pros outweigh the cons, maybe you should make that decision.”

• Think ahead. “You have to think about the future. What’s going to happen if I make the decision.”

• You make the decision.

It seems as if plenty of students followed the process intuitively during Random Acts of Kindness Week, during which they kept track of such acts and displayed them on bulleting boards throughout the school.

“When somebody does something kind for them, or if they someone do something kind for someone else, they write it on a Post-It note and they put it on the board,” Boyce guidance counselor Amy Antonio explained.

During the assembly, she called attention to a schoolwide act of kindness: Boyce’s recent Valentine Gram fundraiser netted $1,120, exceeding the goal by more than $200. Proceeds are going to the Education Partnership, an organization that purchases supplies for needy students in the Pittsburgh area, and benefiting in turn are students at two Wilkinsburg elementary schools.

An international effort, Random Acts of Kindness Week is Feb. 14-20, but Boyce principal Daniel O’Rourke urged students to keep up the good work.

“We hope that you reflect on the choices you make,” he said, “and make someone’s day better each and every day.”

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