When Chelsie Christison sees her fellow students wearing pink at her high school in Regina, she sees some hope to change the culture of bullying.
“It raises awareness and gets kids to stand up and not be scared of what might happen,” explained the Grade 12 student and Red Cross ambassador from rural Saskatchewan.
She was one of several students who came to the launch of the Red Cross Pink Day campaign to raise awareness and encourage people to stand up against bullying. This year the campaign has a slightly different name and a different t-shirt design.
“I notice bullying is like a huge problem in school nowadays, you see a lot of kids alone and like isolated,” Christison said. “In our school for sure, isolation is probably the biggest thing.”
She knows how it feels to be bullied and to feel alone, that’s why she decided to stand up for others.
“I didn’t want what happened to me to happen to anyone else, so I figured if I had an opportunity to help other kids, then why not,” Christison commented.
She says it is cool to see how the Pink Shirt campaign started with a few students in one high school and has now grown to become an international campaign.
“I didn’t want what happened to me to happen to anyone else.” – Chelsie Christison
Christison admitted that she’s not sure you can ever truly end bullying, but she does believe the awareness campaign is making things better for everyone.
The official Red Cross Pink Day is on Feb. 24, 2016.