Cheers for Mix It Up Day

When the start of Mix It Up at Lunch Day was announced at Seth Johnson Elementary in Montgomery, Ala., cheers rose up in the halls. At lunch, the fifth-grade class – leaders of this year’s activities – proudly displayed the banner they created for the event.

Students seemed a little shy as lunch began, but soon, fifth-graders Jaelyn and Breyanna found they shared a common interest – football. By the end of the day, the entire cafeteria was buzzing with conversation. 

That story was played out thousands of times Nov. 10, as schools across the country participated in Mix It Up At Lunch Day. Though Mix It Up was held on Tuesday in most schools, reports of successful Mix events are still emerging.

In South Haven, Indiana, a home school advisor’s own interracial friendship inspired her to promote Mix It Up at her school [2]. At Christa Macauliffe Elementary in Colorado Springs, fifth graders of different races “played like lifelong friends [3].”

In Manchester, Mich., teachers say Mix is helping 11-year-olds develop important social skills [4].

Palo Alto High School in California held its first Mix event this year. The news comes to us courtesy of The Paly Voice [5], a well-written student newspaper.

In Massachusetts, Swampscott High School [6] held its third annual Mix Day, with help from the Swampscott Education Foundation, a local non-profit.

Every year, we encounter grownups who feel that Mix It Up would be a good idea in the workplace. This year, book reviewer Lee Wind is advising his readers to do a literary Mix It Up [7].

The St. Petersburg Times notes that  30 schools in the Tampa/St. Pete area participated in Mix [8]. 

Students in Wausau, Wisc [9]., Emporia, Kansas [10] and Santa Barbara, Calif. [11], got in on the act.

Three schools in Gastonia, North Carolina [12] gave Mix a try.

A writer at The Baltimore Sun declared “mission accomplished [13]” after watching three 12-year-olds – nearly strangers at first – opening up to each other at the lunch table.

At Midvale Middle School in Salt Lake City, Mix It Up is now being done once a month, not just once a year, according to the Salt Lake Tribune [14].

In Montana, eighth-graders bonded over an icebreaker [15] that asked them what super power they’d like to have.

In Hamden, Conn., Mix It Up Day helped launch conversations about stereotypes and friendships [16].

In small communities, cliques can be particularly limiting. “We all know each other's names and we've grown up together, but still we're segregated,” Sands High School student Ashli Stockton told a West Texas television station [17] [17]. Mix It Up organizers at Sands said they hoped each student made at least one new friend.

In Ohio, new friends vowed to stay in touch [18] long after Mix Day has passed.

How did your school observe Mix It Up? Leave a note in the “comments” section to share your story.