Tomorrow will see Cochranites dressed in salmon, watermelon, flamingo, and fascia. Pink Shirt Day is the time everyone in town takes a stand against bullying.
Pink Shirt Day started back in 2007 after an incident in Nova Scotia. 14 years later, and the movement is now bigger than ever.
CochraneNow caught up with Hazel Carter and Sasha Langman from the Boys and Girls Club of Cochrane and Area. Hazel explains how bullying is not just something children do. “So many people are affected by bullying, it’s not just children, it’s adults as well. One in five children is actually affected by bullying at some point during their childhood. So, it because it affects so many of us. It is super important. And by way of raising awareness for it, we can help stop it from happening.”
Sasha continues by saying that our youngest community members are bringing about huge change “The beautiful thing is we’re working with some of Cochrane’s youngest citizens. When we start this young, we can really, kind of, teach some of that empathy and that understanding and compassion, and we can really start from the ground up.
“When this generation is adults, hopefully, they will feel a little bit less of adult bullying, the kind Hazel talked about and more compassion and empathy. It’s super important especially right now with a pandemic because we’re all feeling that extra stress, every single age group has that additional stress on top. If we could get rid of bullying that will be awesome.”
In prior years, The Boys and Girls Club would set out into the community, a huge group of kids and coordinators all decked out in pink. Sasha says that in 2021, they have had to switch things up a bit. “There are a couple of our programs here at Fifth Avenue that we’re looking at trying to spread a bit of that kindness without necessarily having an interaction with you because of the pandemic. So we’re talking about, like you rock.. rocks, with positive messages that we can, kind of, paint and scatter through the community to just give a bit of a boost to any single person.”
“Our virtual programs are also celebrating Pink Shirt Day. Charlotte Harrison, our other coordinator is part of that pink shirts process with our virtual team, and I talked to her and she said that she is going to have a big brainstorm with the children, where they’re going to talk about ways that they can live Pink Shirt Day every single day, and kind of encourage that we change how we’re talking about it so it’s not one day a year, it’s every day.”