1850 NORTH CENTRAL AVENUE, SUITE 1400 | PHOENIX, AZ 85004 | T: 602.285.5000 | F: 844.670.6009 ARIZONA CALIFORNIA COLORADO FLORIDA ILLINOIS KENTUCKY MICHIGAN NEVADA OHIO TENNESSEE TEXAS WASHINGTON DC TORONTO WINDSOR WWW.DICKINSONWRIGHT.COM and award-winning talent to our clients. Our team of nationally recognized attorneys has over 225 combined years of experience and handles all aspects of family law, including dissolution and legal separation of marriage, spousal parenting and custody issues, premarital and post-nuptial agreements, and by Best Lawyers, Super Lawyers, Top 100 Lawyers in Arizona, and other leading evaluating organizations. OUR TEAM HAS BEEN RANKED #1 IN ARIZONA IN FAMILY LAW FOUR YEARS IN A ROW. WHEN EXPERIENCE MATTERS * 12 MARLENE A. PONTRELLI Practice Group Co-Chair - Family Law 602.285.5081 | MPontrelli@ dickinsonwright.com * 1 DANA M. LEVY 602.285.5082 | DLevy@ dickinsonwright.com * 1 ROBERT L. SCHWARTZ 602.285.5020 | RSchwartz@ dickinsonwright.com 3 KRISTYN P. RECCHIA 248.205.3240 | KRecchia@ dickinsonwright.com 3 LYNN C. SIRICH Practice Group Co-Chair - Family Law 248.205.3224 | LSirich@ dickinsonwright.com 1 BRIAN H. MERDINGER 602.889.5353 | BMerdinger@ dickinsonwright.com 4 STUART SCOTT 615.620.1710 | SScott@ dickinsonwright.com 3 JAMES H. FISHER 616.336.1051 | JFisher@ dickinsonwright.com * 1 LEONCE A. RICHARD 602.285.5025 | LRichard@ dickinsonwright.com * 1 STEVEN D. WOLFSON 602.285.5037 | SWolfson@ dickinsonwright.com 1 AURORA WALKER 602.285.5145 | AWalker@ dickinsonwright.com 5 BIANCA BROTHERTON 602.285.5332 | BBrotherton@ dickinsonwright.com Admitted in: 1 Arizona | 2 California | 3 Michigan | 4 Tennessee | 5 Bar Admission Pending 22 OCTOBER 2024 Biltmore Prep unveils plans to install ‘Ben’s Bells’ mural By Kylie de Best Ben’s Bells is a nonprofit that started in 2003 after Tucson local Jeannette Maré lost her son Ben, who died suddenly before his third birthday in 2002. During this dark time, Maré dealt with the grief by creating ceramic wind chimes – the first Ben’s Bells – in her backyard studio with friends and family. Grateful for their support, Maré learned how small acts of kindness can significantly impact someone’s life and wanted to teach this to others through bell making. On the first anniversary of Ben’s death, Jeanette and her friends distributed 400 chimes around Tucson, which sparked conversations as people began to share their own stories of grief, hope and healing with others. Schools, businesses, and individuals became interested in helping this nonprofit grow, which led to bells being spread all over the world and the creation of a free education program called Kind Campus, which has reached over 1.6 million students. The Ben’s Bells program “aims to increase kind behavior by educating students about the benefits of kindness, looking at the influence that role models have on our choices, and making kind behavior easier through skill development and removing barriers.” Biltmore Prep became a Kind Campus after Principal Stephanie DeMar visited a school in Tucson and became interested in the program. With support from teachers backing the idea, Biltmore Prep signed up through Ben’s Bells, where they receive weekly emails with a different kindness focus each week. “Being a Kind Campus has created a more positive campus culture,” DeMar said. “It doesn’t eliminate conflict or challenges, but it helps and provides a common language for moving forward. On Monday mornings, time is set aside for teachers to have class discussions or teach the kind focus for the week. Then, kindness is reinforced by modeling, recognizing, and practicing amongst ourselves and others.” In addition to being a Kind Campus, Biltmore Prep is adding a Ben’s Bells Mural to their school. These brightly colored mosaics symbolize community connection and support through kindness. “Having a visual representation reminds us that it’s a shared value in our space, which inspires kind behavior and actions. It also encourages discussions on kindness and evokes emotions from people,” DeMar said. Biltmore’s PTO took over production and fundraising for the mural to support the installation, which is scheduled for October 21-23. Students and parents were encouraged to get involved: students made tiles for the mural, and parent volunteers will install them. “The mural will be a positive, visual reminder of kindness across campus, along with knowing the community supported the creation and installation. Having many students involved in creating the tiles will help generate a sense of pride and ownership,” DeMar shared. bensbells.org Biltmore Prep teachers developed Be Kind Class Codes that will go along with the Ben’s Bells mural, which will be installed toward the end of October. PHOTO: STEPHANIE DEMAR