Class Consciousness

Photograph by Paul Markert

When schools opened in North Bennington, Vt., last week, Terry Ehrich, a magazine publisher, could be found driving an antique fire engine in a parade down Main Street to the local elementary school.

Mr. Ehrich has long been a believer that the first day of school should not be an anxiety-ridden time for children or their parents, but a holiday that offers as many festive activities for families as the Fourth of July — and in the process, spurs parents to form relationships with teachers on day one.

He has spread his idea in his hometown and elsewhere by establishing the First Day Foundation, which is working nationwide to encourage cities and towns to turn the start of the academic year into a celebration.

Mr. Ehrich got the idea for the foundation when he was trying to figure out why his employees at Hemmings Motor News, a publication for antique-car collectors, weren’t taking advantage of a benefit he offered: two paid days off a year to visit or volunteer at a school, especially on a youngster’s first day.

Today, Mr. Ehrich’s group shows schools how to conduct special programs to welcome parents. He also urges schools to work with chambers of commerce to persuade local businesses to give employees time off on the first day of school.

Last year at least 176 schools in Vermont held first-day celebrations, along with 201 schools in 34 other states. The First Day Foundation hopes that its ideas will be spread even further now that it has started a partnership with the American Express Company, which is encouraging its network of 9,000 financial advisers to take the lead in starting school celebrations in their own communities.

Here, at a First Day celebration in Minneapolis, first graders at the Sheridan Global Arts and Communications School get to know one another by pasting drawings of themselves on a chart arranged by the children’s heights.