From 1:30- 2 p.m. on September 26, all 350 Arden Elementary students put aside their books and computers. Their teachers and other staff put away their class lesson plans and other job duties to focus on teaching students an important lesson of life: compassion and caring for others.

During that 30- minute period, the entire school stopped to write letters of encouragement to patients at the C.M. Tucker Nursing Care Center, a long- term residential Columbia nursing home. Caring Day, as they call it, was the idea of Arden guidance counselor Dale McLendon.