Athena started school in Frisco, Texas on August 15th. The community made it the best first day of school ever. Many of the families in the neighborhood gathered together to walk the kids to school. They chalked the sidewalks with positive messages for the kids and made the first day a memorable one. This is life in Frisco.

As we walked to the community park to meet other parents and walk the kids to school as a group, we noticed dozens of positive, encouraging messages written by parents in the community. They planned to go out the night before and fill the sidewalks and streets with warm messages to make the kids feel loved. It was like something you’d see in a commercial or a movie but you would assume doesn’t exist in real life. But here we were and we were living it.

We arrived at the park and we were greeted by other community families. We introduced ourselves to many of them and the kids gathered together to take a First Day photo.

Athena had already made friends with the girl next door so they took an extra special photo together before we walked along the path towards the school.

Athena felt a little nervous before going in to start the day. We took one last photo outside before heading into the building.

Her teacher noticed she was nervous and asked her if she wanted to take photos with props before going inside. As Athena posed for photos, she almost forgot that she was nervous.

She went inside the class and the parents gathered in the library for snacks with the Parent Teacher Association.

The simple actions and planning of our community members made the first day of school one that we will never forget. It also made me want to join the community event committee to be a part of the next event. This is the type of community we’d envisioned for our family.