Recently I met someone who might be best described as a friendship activist.

Megan Goldman, then in fifth grade at Willow Lane Elementary School, Lower Macungie Township, spearheaded the effort to install a buddy bench at the school. Goldman wrote a letter to her principal suggesting Willow Lane needed a buddy bench after the fifth grader read about a similar effort in an assigned reading for a class.

Goldman's act seemingly is part of a growing movement often credited to Christian Bucks, an elementary school student in York. Bucks saw fellow students needing playmates at recess. His solution was to have a bench designated as a meeting hub on the playground. Kids who needed a friend to play with or talk to simply took a seat on the bench and, with luck, another kid would recognize the signal, and, like a superhero, answer the call, swoop to the bench, cape and all, and rescue the person in need of a friend into a game or other form of fun.

Judging by a crop of academic studies making the rounds, friendship is vital in the 21st century and Bucks and Goldman may be on to something.

Scholar Bella DePaulo, Ph.D., in writing about the plight of single people, describes friendship as "the true relationship of our time."

Extended families are known to be splintered geographically but now the nuclear family is showing signs of fracture within households where conflicting work schedules, long commutes and children's extracurriculars can keep husbands, wives and kids from sharing an evening, much less any meal.

Our lexicon now is filled with terms like "bromance," "girl crush" and "work spouse" in an attempt to qualify a new(er) closeness some may find in same sex and workplace attachments. All three terms spotlight a certain reverence for friendship.

In an article for WebMD, writer Tom Valeo points to an Australian study as evidence "good friends may help your life last longer," noting the study tracked 1,500 older people for a decade and concluded those study subjects with a large network of friends outlived those with the fewest friends by more than 20 percent.

An article in the April 2014 issue of the magazine Good Housekeeping titled "You Gotta Have Friends" told how one woman, rather than relying on social media to "friend" her into a new state of popularity when she moved to a new city used social media to connect with others through face-to-face events initiated on social media sites. She went on to write a book about how to make friends and meet new people in the digital age. Another woman found a niche creating friend-matching websites to help those with shared interests find new friends near them.

Psychologists are particularly keen on the utility of friendships. In an article on the website psychcentral.com titled "The Importance of Friendship" Jane Collingwood, the associate news editor for the site, writes "the closest friends like each other for who they are in themselves, not for what they deliver" and endorses the notion everyone spend "at least a fifth of our time with our friends."

Megan, Christian and students at Harry S Truman Elementary School who recently held a walk-athon to raise money for a bench for their campus are saying the same loud and clear with their buddy bench efforts. Displays of friendship no longer are a matter of colorful bracelets made of embroidery thread and given to one's BFF. Outdoor furniture is now involved and the scope of friendship should extend beyond one's immediate circle.

At the end of our interview Megan, in a white dress because she was to graduate from fifth grade later the same day, gathered her friends together to strike a pose on the buddy bench and invited me to take their picture. We took several photos showing the girls smiling and laughing and having a blast. Then one of the friends suggested everyone "look fierce" and, like a precision drill team, the girls struck the pose you see with this article.

As friends, the girls knew what to do. As friends, the girls had a community where looking fierce meant something. As friends the girls were buddies. As friends, the girls set an example worth following.

Get together with your friends and strike a pose if the spirit moves. You might live longer.

April Peterson

editorial assistant

East Penn Press

Salisbury Press