The entire ACS Athens Academy community of students, parents, faculty, and staff responded with enthusiasm and distinct readiness in order to support a new ACS Athens initiative, the "Secret Friend's" Day. This initiative was undertaken as part of the Youth to Youth Educational and Social Integration programs, which have been running successfully for the past three years.

Celebrating this special day involved the exchange of small gifts to indicate the manifestation of friendship (poems, expression of wishes or feelings, a handcraft, or a gift), between members of the community.

Prior to the winter break, the Youth to Youth students were assigned to a Secret Friend. The Celebrations of Friendship took place after the break, in two separate occasions in order to accommodate the big number of participants. On January 10, 2019, the Full-time Youth to Youth Friendship Celebration took place, and on Saturday, January 12, 2019, the same event was celebrated with the Part-time Youth to Youth students.

All of the Y2Y students were presented with a gift from their Secret friend and they, in turn, manifested their friendship through beautiful cards with warm-hearted messages. Some of them even offered handmade tokens of their friendship, such as crafts and jewelry. One of them even bought a beautiful flower pot with lilies and offered it to his secret friend!

The large number of participants for this newly launched initiative (131 students, faculty, and staff and 127 unaccompanied refugee minors from The HOME Project), is reflective of our school's commitment to serving Humanity and educating caring and open-minded individuals.

In fact, thanks to the ACS community members' generosity, the friendship invitation was extended beyond the full and part-time Youth to Youth students, to all the Home Project unaccompanied minors. These children will be offered their gifts during separate visits that will be organized in the near future, to their homes.