It wasn’t just schools and businesses wearing pink and spreading the message against bullying Wednesday.
The Mont St. Joseph home got involved with Pink Day, going all out with pink t-shirts, positive post-it notes and pink cream soda ice cream floats. While Mont St. Joseph has celebrated Pink Day before, they haven’t ever gone this big.
“It fits with the mission and values of our organization,” explained Mont St. Joseph director of care Lesley Larrea.
“Being a welcoming, Christian community, we welcome everyone and embrace our differences. This is a great way to showcase some of what we do everyday.”
It wasn’t just the staff that embraced Pink Day. Residents showed their spirit as well, some sporting pink hair or nail polish, others in pink shirts, and several wearing pink buttons some residents made while working at Kin Enterprises.
Larrea stressed the importance of standing up to bullies in all stages of life.
“We’ve all been kids, and we’ve all been in workplaces that maybe were not very positive. This is something we need to teach our younger generations,” she said.
“The really nice thing is with 40 young children here as part of our Blooms and Buds Childcare Centre, we are able to show those kids and the residents that there are no boundaries to bullying. We need to stop it at any age.”
The young children also made an appearance during the afternoon celebration. They were all decked out in pink, and proudly posed for a photo in their photo frame.
Wednesday’s celebration wasn’t just about wearing pink in solidarity. Staff members tried to spread as much kindness and positivity as they could throughout the home. Residents and staff wrote positive messages on sticky notes. The notes will be collected and put on display in the next couple of days.
“Hopefully this will be a really positive experience to see the kindness our staff and residents share,” Larrea said.
Pink Day was started in 2007 when a grade nine student in Cambridge, N.S. was bullied for wearing a pink shirt to school. Two other students rallied their peers to send a message to the bullies, and the next day the halls were filled with students in pink t-shirts.
The movement has since grown worldwide. Every Feb. 28, the Red Cross celebrates Pink Day and encourages the community to celebrate too, distributing t-shirts, hosting anti-bullying events and raising funds across Canada. The 2018 theme of Pink Day is to stand up and be someone’s hero.
