Pink and Proud
By raincoaster
Cast your minds back, dear readers, to a more innocent time. When things were quieter. When people were nicer. When the deer and the buffalo roamed.
Sorry, lost the thread.
Yes, cast your minds way, waaaaaay back, to this time last year. That was when we blogged about David Shepherd and Travis Price, two students in Nova Scotia who, outraged by seeing a fellow student bullied for wearing a pink shirt, took arms against a sea of bullies and, by opposing, ended them.
They started the Pink Shirt movement.
They used the Internet to encourage people to wear pink and bought 75 pink tank tops for male students to wear. They handed out the shirts in the lobby before class last Friday — even the bullied student had one.
“I made sure there was a shirt for him,” David said.
They also brought a pink basketball to school as well as pink material for headbands and arm bands. David and Travis figure about half the school’s 830 students wore pink…
“People say you’re famous, heroes or celebrities,” added Travis, who plans to take criminology next year. “We’re not, we’re just two kids who stood up for a cause.”
And now the government of Nova Scotia has declared the second Thursday of every school year to be Pink Shirt Stand Up Against Bullying Day. This year, that is today, but if you miss it there’s an International Stand Up Against Bullying Day on Friday, November 21st during anti-bullying week.
“The actions of these two young men, along with their fellow students who wore pink to school in support of another student, are showing all Nova Scotians just how much of a difference individuals can make,” Premier Rodney MacDonald said. “It is an honour to acknowledge their creative and selfless efforts by proclaiming a day at the outset of each school year to relay such a positive message against bullying.”
Join the Facebook group and upload photos of you and your kids flaunting your pink, or just go ahead and stand up to bullying right here in Real Life by wearing your pink with pride!. Blog it, forward it, wear it, flaunt it!
Now that’s Superfantastic!
September 11th, 2008 at 4:34 am
[...] It’s Pink Shirt Day! (TeenyManolo) [...]
September 11th, 2008 at 10:50 am
Yeah, David and Travis are seriously awesome. (They have certainly made this fellow Nova Scotian proud!)
It’s one thing to be opposed to bullying, but their way of handling it was so great! Non-violent, non-confrontational, but it sent a VERY clear message to the bullies. I do educational presentations to high schools and elementary schools about peace, and I definitely use those guys as an example of how you don’t have to be powerful or famous to make a difference.
September 12th, 2008 at 11:20 am
Rock on!
September 12th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
How awesome is that!?! My son has been known to be the peace-keeper and I hope he continues … what great kids!