Two schools in Vicksburg Warren School District, Bovina Elementary School and Bowmar Avenue Elementary School, were named Leader in Me Legacy Schools, the district announced Monday.

The announcement was made at a special event at Sports Force Parks on the Mississippi and was attended by students and teachers from the schools, VWSD personnel, and community leaders.

The Legacy status was given to the schools for exhibiting an innovative culture of leadership and sustained growth in the areas required for Lighthouse status.

Interim Superintendent David Campbell said he is very pleased that the work teachers and staff have been pouring into their schools is being recognized.

“It’s exciting. To get recognition at any point is great, but to have worldwide recognition is amazing,” he said. “We are the only district in the entire world to have two (Legacy) schools named in the same district.”

FranklinCovey is the company that runs the Leader in Me program, of which VWSD Schools are some of more than 5,000 worldwide. Of those schools, there are less than 20 that have achieved Legacy status, and VWSD is the only district in the world to have more than one school reach that status.

Brother Blackburn, a member of the Vicksburg Warren Partnership, said he and many others have been working to help VWSD achieve Legacy status since 2009.

“We had a vision and we asked the question: ‘What can we do to make our schools, instead of being a detractor for our community, an attractor?’ And guess what? We’ve got people coming in from all over the world now to see what we are doing here,” Blackburn said. “So we began with that end in mind and that’s where we started. And we just decided to be proactive and we went out and presented it to the community and they all came on board. We did not have a single person or business say ‘no’ to us.”

The Honor Choir from both schools sang a rendition of “This Little Light of Mine” at the ceremony, and students had the opportunity to participate in a variety of games and activities.

For more information about the Leader in Me program and Legacy status, visit leaderinme.org.