Celebrate kindness: break out the pink
Wednesday, Feb. 28 marks Pink Shirt Day in Canada. Students, teachers, parents and other individuals are encouraged to break out their best pink clothes and wear them with pride.
The simple gesture aims to call attention to bullying and show solidarity with the many children and teens who suffer harassment at the hands of their peers. And it all stems back to a small act of kindness at a Nova Scotia high school almost two decades ago.
Back in 2007, Travis Price and David Shepherd from Nova Scotia heard about a Grade 9 kid being bullied by a group of teens for wearing a pink polo shirt on his first day of school. “They were calling him gay and pushing him around,” Price said in a YouTube video.
As Grade 12 students, Price and Shepherd felt strongly that wasn’t the kind of thing they wanted to see at their school. So they headed off to a discount store and bought 75 pink tank tops and assorted pink paraphernalia before messaging everyone they knew to let them know what was going on.
“We asked them to support this issue and stand up for this kid who didn’t deserve (to be bullied),” he said. On Friday of that same week, hundreds of kids at the school showed up wearing pink. When the bullied boy saw them, “you could see it was like a weight was lifted off his shoulders,” recalls Price.
The heart-warming story hit the news and galvanized neighbouring schools to take part. By 2009, New Zealand had adopted the celebration, and now countries across the globe participate — including Japan, China, Panama and numerous others.
Last year alone, people in almost 180 countries shared their support of Pink Shirt Day through social media posts and donations.
In Canada, Pink Shirt Day takes place on the last Wednesday in February each year. Its stated mission, according to the website: to create a kinder, more inclusive world by raising awareness and funds to stop bullying.
HOW CAN YOU TAKE PART?
Schools across Canada are encouraging students and staff to wear pink for the day, “but your specific school may have planned an event all its own,” says Andy Telfer, executive director of the WITS Programs Foundation.
Other than donning your favourite shade of rose, fuchsia or dusty pink to show solidarity with the victims of bullying, you can log in for the official Pink Shirt Day broadcast.
This year the 40-minute interactive show designed for schools features a hip-hop dance duo, Indigenous writer and storyteller Seabacola Beaton, and Olympic swimmer Maggie Mac Neil, among others. “If kids have a question, we’re asking them to send in a video of their own and the guests will answer it during the live show,” says Telfer.
BUT BULLYING HAPPENS ALL YEAR ROUND
Although Pink Shirt Day is a wonderful initiative, says Telfer, “It’s only one day a year, and kids experience victimization all year long.”
For that reason, the proceeds from T-shirt sales through pinkshirtdaycanada.ca go towards a sister project, the WITS Programs Foundation. Its goal is to engage students and train teachers to handle bullying (or “victimization,” as Telfer prefers to call it). “We also try not to stigmatize kids by labelling them ‘bullies,’” he says. “We all have a bad day sometimes.”
The WITS program has been launched in more than 1,400 elementary schools in Canada as well as in the United States and Europe. “We’re working with the District School Board of Niagara right now to bring the WITS program to 30 of their schools,” says Telfer.
There are a number of newer initiatives as well. With a grant from Heritage Canada, the organizers of Pink Shirt Day recently developed the Pink Shirt Project.
“Teens can access the program through their schools or after-school programs, and it gives them the tools to conceive of and facilitate a project that promotes kindness and inclusion in their community,” says Telfer.
For example, a group of teens from New Brunswick created a seniors’ lunch at a nearby seniors’ home, where students were paired with a senior to chat with them while they ate.
Another project, Canadian Kindness Leaders, focuses on slightly younger children. One recent success story: a group of kids from a Winnipeg school noticed their classmates who use wheelchairs “couldn’t participate in anything at the playground because it was covered in woodchips and they couldn’t get around,” says Telfer. They convinced the school board to pave some paths leading to and through the playground.
“We want to get kids thinking about ways to be kind all year round,” says Telfer. “Our message is that, you can do something really positive for your community or your school, and you have the power to make it happen.”