St. Paul CES Kindergarten classes rock ‘Wear Glasses Day’ to support friend’s first pair of specs

Jan. 30, 2025

Decked out in their favourite frames on Thursday (Jan. 30, 2025), students in Daniella Mackie/Kelly Wieczorek’s Kindergarten class at St. Paul Catholic Elementary School in Norwood were taking part in a special “Wear Glasses Day” to support one of their classmates, Tess, who just received her first pair of glasses.

“Our friend Tess got glasses. We were in discussion with mom quite a bit about it. Quickly we realized she didn’t like wearing them at home and at school it was a harder transition,” said Mackie. “We tried a reward-based (initiative) and tried to figure out how to encourage her to wear glasses in the class. Even though our ECE Kelly wears glasses, we couldn’t get her to wear them.” 

Determined to help Tess embrace her new glasses, they came up with the idea of a full-day event to encourage everyone to wear glasses—whether prescription glasses, blue-light glasses, or even sunglasses.

“Wear anything to encourage glasses.” Mackie added. “We started with our class and then the other kindergarten team put the message out on their Seesaw as well.”

What started as a small initiative among the two kindergarten classes quickly spread, with other students in the school joining in. The idea has already gained traction, including on social media, and plans are in motion to potentially extend the invite to the entire school next week.

“This morning we went in and got Tess from Hucklebug Preschool and she saw the glasses on my face, because I typically don’t wear glasses, and was super excited to see that,” Mackie said. “We took her to the fish tank in the Special Education room and we showed her the difference in seeing the fish with and without her glasses on. Just seeing that look on her face,  the excitement of seeing the difference, I think she’s pretty excited.”