Purdue community invited to sign Earhart Elementary banner supporting friendship, kindness and diversity

The Purdue community is invited today (Oct. 17) to help fourth-graders from Amelia Earhart Elementary School with a project focused on friendship, kindness and diversity.

The 27 fourth-graders from Joe Kimerer's class are asking people to sign a banner they created after reading "Maniac Magee" by Jerry Spinelli. The Newberry Medal-winning novel follows Jeffrey Lionel "Maniac" Magee, an orphan who changes lives in a racially divided small town.

The students created a banner that reads "The only thing that should be separated by color is laundry," and are gathering signatures as a culminating project on the book. The banner will be on campus from 10 a.m. to noon in Purdue Memorial Union, Room 118.

The event is being sponsored by the Division of Diversity and Inclusion's Diversity Ambassador Program; the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Center; Asian American and Asian Resource and Cultural Center; Native American Educational and Cultural Center; Purdue Dining & Catering; College of Education; and Pappy’s Sweet Shop.