Dan Clark is trading his Green and White for pink, helping the Saskatchewan Red Cross with their Pink Shirt Day initiative to stop bullying.
Clark, Nic Demski and Levi Steinhauer were at an autograph signing on Saturday for the cause. All three have been given training on how to make presentations to kids about bullying for the Imagine…No Bullying campaign.
Clark said the campaign is personal for him.
“In elementary school I was very badly bullied, so it’s something I can relate to the kids about how the effects of bullying, how you can overcome it, and you get help if you need help.”
Last year, Riders managed to spread the word to about 20,000 students. This year, Clark said they’ve already reached about 2,000 kids.
Clark said one of his big things is talking to the kids about power.
“You ask the kids, you know, ‘do we all have the same power?’ And we do. We all have a voice, we all can speak up.”
He said they also discuss things like how to get help, and how to be a healthy bystander.
Clark said he likes to engage the kids during the presentations because he’s been through the same things, and he can relate.
Being a Roughrider, Clark is in a prominent position in Saskatchewan, and he said the program is a chance to give back to a community and province that’s given him a lot.
“I hope that younger Dan would look up to bigger Dan and be very proud of how (far) he’s come … I imagine myself out in the audience, and saying, hopefully I would be able to reach out to myself at that point.”
Clark, Demski, and Steinhauer will also be signing pink day shirts on Wednesday at the Cornwall Centre, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Pink Day is Feb. 24.