If you see a wave of pink heading toward you at a SkyTrain station today, don't worry, it's not a hallucination.
Feb. 22 is Pink Shirt Day and young people from across the Tri-Cities will be taking part in anti-bullying awareness activities at Coquitlam Central Station, handing out buttons and collecting donations as part of an effort to raise awareness about anti-bullying programs and resources.
The I Am Someone Campaign to End Bullying, founded in Port Coquitlam in 2012, is helping promote Pink Shirt Day with the SkyTrain awareness blitz because it receives funding from Pink Shirt Day to promote the text 211 program, which provides resource and referrals services to youth who feel lonely, bullied or scared.
Last year, for example, with funds from Pink Shirt Day, the PoCo anti-bullying group initiated a social media campaign to promote the text 211 resource and referral program and established a website to let young people know whether they are being bullied or not (bullyingornot.ca).
"Pink Shirt Day raises money and we apply for grants. Last year, we got $14,000 for Pink Shirt Day, which helped us do the research and do this new anti-bullying website. We also print materials and get it out to students," Howorth told The Tri-City News.
And so far, the efforts appear to be paying off with an uptick in numbers of youth accessing 211 to get help, Howorth said.
Pink Shirt Day is part of a collective effort over the last several years to explore ways to prevent bullying and support those who are victims of bullying. Celebrated annually around the globe, Pink Shirt Day began in Canada in 2007 when two Nova Scotia high school students, David Shepherd and Travis Price, took a stand against homophobic bullying by distributing pink t-shirts to all the boys in their school.
In addition to connecting with transit users at SkyTrain stations today, Tri-City young people will be participating in Pink Shirt activities at the Hyde Away Youth Centre in PoCo this morning, with a community dinner at Wilson Centre tonight.
Howorth said Pink Shirt Day remains important even 10 years after the Nova Scotia youth started their impromptu campaign. "[Bullying] still affects everybody in their daily lives. The idea of being kind, treating others with respect and practising tolerance and acceptance is something we all benefit from."
