ALPENA — All Alpena Public School buildings will celebrate Unity Week today through Friday. Wednesday is Wear Orange for Unity Day.

APS invites the community to join students and staff in wearing orange in a show of kindness. This national event began being recognized locally because of the efforts of Mya Bellanger, a current senior at Alpena High School. When she was a fourth-grader at Besser Elementary School, she initiated the tradition of wearing Orange for Unity Day because “A group of students were bullying individuals at her school.”

She fell victim to that group.

“I wanted to make a positive change in my school,” Mya said. “The goal of Unity Week is to be kind to others and to yourself.”

The unity pledge from pacer.org asks us to:

1. Support others who have been hurt or harmed;

2: Treat others with kindness;

3. Be more accepting of people’s differences;

4. Help include those who are left out.