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WEARING PINK

More than just a day: how P.A. is marking Pink Shirt Day

Feb 22, 2023 | 3:35 PM

Feb. 22 marks Pink Shirt Day and several people in Prince Albert are marking the occasion, raising awareness on the issue of bullying.

Those recognizing Pink Shirt Day in the city include Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Prince Albert, KIN Enterprises, Pharmasave on Central and Prince Albert Pride.

For the local Pride Society, this day is one they circle on their calendars each year. But as co-chair Chelsea Bleau explains, it’s not just something they talk about one day of the year.

“We also stand up against all bullying. I think that goes without saying that all bullying is awful and we should always stand up for it. What’s important is being here for people who are being bullied,” they said, mentioning that it’s not just bullying against the LGBTQ community that they talk about.

Last week, the Pride society joined SaskTel as part of its Be Kind Online promotion to talk about Pink Shirt Day.

Unfortunately, as Bleau explained, the video was met with positive and negative feedback.

“The Facebook video that we did with SaskTel was met with a lot of hate comments— which is kind of ironic because it’s about pink shirt day. There was a lot of homophobic and transphobic comments,” they said adding the positive comments eventually outweighed the hateful ones.

(Prince Albert Pride/Facebook)

Pink Shirt Day was also celebrated by local schools, albeit, a week earlier as schools are closed for February break.

Mel Willie, a Grade 4 teacher at W.J Berezhoszky School, said the message behind Pink Shirt Day is one that’s been taught all year round.

“One of the big things that we encourage with our kids is kindness and bullying is not just something we talk about in February,” she said. “It’s built right into our school culture. We always talk about choosing kindness and how things feel.”

An example of this happens every morning when students meet and have an opportunity to share.

“It’s just all about creating a warm, respectful and safe environment,” Willie said.

The school and other schools in the Sask. Rivers Public School Division celebrated Pink Shirt Day on Feb. 15.

While the students really take to heart the message behind Pink Shirt Day, willie admits there are some challenges they face.

“Even though we are doing a lot of talk and our school is a safe place, we do feel that online safety and social media are still a concern and we still do see incidents,” she said.

Willie added despite those challenges, students have embraced the message behind the campaign.

“I do think that pink is a very, very strong symbol of anti-bullying and I do think our kids are well aware of what that means because it’s been part of our school for quite a few years now.”

Derek.craddock@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @PA_Craddock

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