Image Credit: CFJC Today
ANTI-BULLYING DAY

Kay Bingham students celebrate Pink Shirt Day by sharing books and kindness

Feb 22, 2023 | 4:35 PM

KAMLOOPS — Pink Shirt Day started in 2007 when a pair of students in Nova Scotia stood up for one of their classmates who got bullied for wearing a pink shirt.

“And then these Grade Twelvers, these two Grade Twelvers went to the store and bought like 50 pink shirts!” Hunter Pooler, a Grade One student, explained to CFJC Today, “then just handed them out to the school.”

As a result, students across Canada now celebrate Pink Shirt Day on the last Wednesday in February.

At Kay Bingham Elementary School in Brocklehurst, each class undertook their own Pink Shirt Day activity. Some decorated lockers with notes of positivity. Others created kindness clouds. Some of the younger students took stock of what makes them grateful.

“Pink Shirt Day is a day for you to be kind to others, even if you’re not friends or you don’t even know the person,” said Lilli Smith. “You can do small things or big things to help that person.”

That kindness was on display, as a group of students, chosen by the leadership students, came together with their younger schoolmates to read books that match the theme of Pink Shirt Day.

“Me and Hunter, the first one that we read asked what kindness was,” said Grade Five student Odetta Kerner. “He had his sheet that showed what kindness was.”

Hunter described three ways people can be kind: “Help, give, and play.”

“And this is the bucket,” Odetta points out on Hunter’s worksheet.

The bucket is a concept that Lilli Smith explained pretty darn well.

“Your bucket is invisible, and if you are kind to someone else, their bucket fills — but also yours will, too,” she explained. “If you’re mean to someone, or rude, their bucket will soon be empty and they will not feel special or that they belong or that they even need to be around. But if you’re kind to them, their bucket will start to fill back up and they’ll feel like a better person.”

On Pink Shirt Day, and every day, for that matter, we should strive to fill up each other’s invisible buckets.

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