My goodness, where has the time gone?! It seems like just yesterday that I updated you on the recent accomplishments of Bullying Ends Here but it has been almost two months. I’m not going to bore you with every specific detail (so much has taken place as always), but will share some of the highlights.
On February 22nd, Dave Teixeira and I traveled to Vancouver to meet with the Premier Christy Clark of BC and Travis Price to celebrate Pink Shirt Day. As seems our normal practice for this day, we entertained media requests, spoke about the work we are doing and met some inspirational people. There are a lot of people out there making some real positive change! Everyone seemed to LOVE our pink shirt (that we wear all year round).
During those three days in BC, I presented to 5 schools (over 3,000 students) across the Lower Mainland. The responses have been terrific with emails sharing positive feedback along with the following note;
“You came and talked to my school and I didn’t expect much because it’s a school presentation but you changed my life that day. I wanted to say thank you because after your speech, I changed my mind. That day I was going to go home and end it but you made me think twice and I wanted to say thank you because your speech in my school saved my life that night and I’ll forever be appreciative!”
If this isn’t enough evidence to show just how much of an impact we are having on our youth, then I’m not sure what it would take. My goal was always to help just one person and this email now puts our program at 43 lives saved!!! Of course we will never know the true impact the program will have on thousands of others.
With February and March combined, I have presented more than 25 times and reached another 15,000 students. I have spoken to adults and youth alike. April and May will be the last real push for the 2016/17 school year with presentations in BC, Alberta and all over Southern Ontario. The Ontario tour is over two weeks and will be 23 presentations in many cities. We expect to reach close to 20,000 youth. One of the highlights will be when I speak at my old high school on April 20th. This will certainly be an emotional day for me.
I should also share that in February, our Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, made a short message endorsing our program. You can find this on our website. We also released a three minute commercial sharing more of the program and what it consists of. As I said, so much is happening with so much more to come!
I hope everyone is doing well and getting ready for spring. We have been fortunate here in Calgary to have had spring arrive early. Now that I say that….
Be well and keep smiling. Together we will not only change lives, but SAVE them!
Courtesy of Tad Milmine – Founder, Bully Ends Here