Marc Ciaramitaro

ELLENSBURG, Wash. — Construction management students at Central Washington University (CWU) are trying to encourage friendship on the playground with their latest project: the buddy bench.

The CWU students built three buddy benches for the nearby Mount Stuart Elementary playground in hopes of eliminating loneliness and fostering friendships at recess. The concept behind the two-person bench is that if a student doesn’t have a friend to play with at recess, they sit on the bench and wait for someone to come sit with them.