The City of Richmond and the Richmond School District are urging everyone who lives, works or plays in the city to don something pink on Wednesday, Feb. 24.
To symbolize their intolerance of bullying, the city and school district are once again partnering to recognize the date as “ERASE Bullying Day” to raise awareness about the issue of bullying.
Unfortunately, bullying is a reality in the lives of many young people, affecting their education, connections and opportunities to have a safe and healthy journey into adulthood.
According to the Vancouver-based McCreary Centre Society 2013 Adolescent Health Survey, youth who were teased, excluded or assaulted in the previous year were more likely to report skipping class in the past month, more likely to have seriously considered suicide and were less likely to report good or excellent mental health.
“Bullying is a troublesome issue, negatively affecting the lives of people of all ages,” said Mayor Malcolm Brodie.
“Here in Richmond we celebrate collaboration and diversity and believe we can erase bullying if we work together.”
The 2016 ERASE Bullying promotional poster designs were created by youth, as part of the Respectful City Youth Artist Poster Submission Initiative.
Two local high school students, Catelyne Ma and Sherry Liu, were the youth artists whose submissions were chosen.
“To me, anti-bullying only has power when the community works together as a whole,” said Sherry.
“My design symbolizes diversity and the importance of working together.”
According to Catelyne, “Pink is the symbol colour of anti-bullying, and can also represent love and the bond between the people around us and society.
“We live in a society that consists of multi-generational and multicultural loving citizens, as I drew the people in this art piece, I put in great effort to highlight and present their individual differences.”
Look for the girls’ posters around Richmond leading up to ERASE Bullying Day — and don’t forget to wear pink on Feb. 24.
Find out more about Richmond’s ERASE Bullying initiative at Richmond.ca/Youth.
