Students honor late teacher Peterson with balloon release
Young students at Friendship Pediatric Care celebrated the life of their teacher Jenni Peterson with a balloon release on Monday afternoon.
Peterson died unexpectedly in her sleep on Feb. 5. The preschool teacher had worked at Siloam Springs Children’s Center since she graduated from college in 2003. She transitioned to Friendship Pediatric Care when the organization took over the facility last year, and worked as an Arkansas Better Chance preschool teacher.
Some of Peterson’s first students are now in high school, according to Renee Philpot, director of Friendship Pediatric Care.
“She’s touched a lot of lives for many years,” she said.
The balloon release was held to show appreciation for Peterson’s service to the school and to help young students say goodbye.
“We did (the balloon release) more for the children to have a way to say goodbye, thinking they could better understand this tribute to her, and because her birthday was coming up,” said Philpot.
The balloons were purple and
many staff members wore purple because it was Peterson’s favorite color. The event was originally planned for Feb. 21 — what would have been Peterson’s 37th birthday — but was rescheduled for Monday because of the weather.
Friendship Pediatric Services has worked to help students as they grieve the loss of their teacher, according to Mittie Greening, assistant director.
“Some of the children have had a little harder time than others,” said Greening. “We contacted counselors when this happened and we have handled it the way they recommended. Some have had some hard days and said ‘I miss her,’ ‘When is she coming back?’ those kinds of things, but we have handled it professionally. I think it’s gone quite smoothly.”
Peterson’s co-teacher has remained in the classroom so students have another familiar teacher to work with to help them with the transition.
After the balloon release, Greening presented Peterson’s parents Michael and Joy Peterson with a painting. The painting contained quotes from each of Peterson’s students such as “I love her,” “I give her hugs,” and “She gave me gummy bears.”
“She did a lot for the children here and we just wanted to show that we appreciated it,” Greening said.