CORNWALL, Ontario – As part of the upcoming Pink Shirt Day event, Boys and Girls Club of Cornwall/SDG has partnered up with Cogeco TV Cornwall to create something new and exciting for this year’s celebrations. In hopes of starting a community dialogue about bullying, local students are getting involved in the newest chapter of the event – the Youth Booth project.
Over the next week, Cogeco and Boys & Girls Club will be dropping in at local secondary schools as part of the ongoing venture, which will unpack issues surrounding bullying, and how kindness can help stop the problem in its tracks.
“Every year, with Pink Shirt Day, we feel it’s important to take on an initiative that involves and engages the youth,” said Boys & Girls Club of Cornwall/SDG Executive Director, Jacquie Richards. “We realized that they had things to say and show, and generally have strong feelings on this topic.”
The purpose of the project is to give youth a voice on an issue many face at some point in their lives.
The project will take the team to a combined seven schools within the area, discussing bullying with students from French and English public schools, as well as several Catholic schools. The French portion of the program will air on Cogeco TV’s Franco Hebdo.
“We thought it was important because at Boys and Girls Club, we offer programs in both languages,” said Richards. “We work with youth from all the boards, so we wanted to make sure they could all contribute to the project.”
Once filming wraps up, Cogeco will compile the footage to create a piece set to air on Pink Shirt Day on Weds. Feb. 22.
“We can never assume we know how they feel, or what they think on this topic,” said Richards. “We’re excited to hear their take on it.”
CCVS student, Lauren Thomas says that if she could inspire a bully to be kind, she would remind them to put things into perspective. “Once you realize that, you understand that you don’t need to put others down in order to get ahead or succeed,” said Thomas.
