5th graders in Indiana create 'happiness hotline'

MILFORD, Ind. (WSBT) – 574-832-4965 may be the number you need to add a smile to your day.

Calling the right person when you need to talk to someone goes a long way. A fifth-grade class in Indiana created a "happiness hotline" to help relieve some of the stress of the last two years.

"The world is really chaotic, it's kind of dark," said teacher Mrs. Van Laeken. "On the news it's kind of hard to find a good news story to share with kids right now. I teach my kids to be positive and do good things for other people and this just seem like a really easy way to get my kids thinking about others."

Van Laeken's class at Milford School has jokes and inspirational quotes ready for anyone who calls the hotline.

"As much as adults feel the negative things happening in the world, the kids feel them just as much if not more sometimes," said Van Laeken. "You're right they haven't been in school, or if they've been in school they've been in quarantined or wearing masks or their friend was there one day and not there for 14 days. So It's so important to teach kids that there are good things happening in the world and they could be part of it."

But they’re not stopping there.

"I have families in my class that their parents don't speak English," said Van Laeken. "So when we were talking about putting this together, a couple of my boys were like 'Well I want to do this but my mom wouldn't understand what we're saying.'"

The class recorded everything in Spanish to make the hotline more accessible.

"Call our phone line and change your day because that's totally what it will do," said Van Laeken.

She says they launched the phone number Tuesday and at last check, it's been called more than 240 times. The students are already working on their second batch of jokes and quotes to update the hotline.