Youth Task Force announces Kyle Maynard event, anti-bullying week

Nevada Daily Mail

Nevada school district anti-bullying week, spearheaded by members of Youth Enrichment Services, has been set for April 14 through 18 to incorporate guest speaker Kyle Maynard on April 16.

"We've got three events scheduled," Mary Mitchell said at the Vernon County Youth Task Force meeting Wednesday. "He'll be speaking at Nevada high school 9 to 10 a.m., 1 to 2 p.m. at either the high school or the middle school and 7 p.m. at the Performing Arts Center for the public."

She said volunteer booths would be set up at the center so people can learn about and join different community organizations.

"The whole goal of the week is to help students be self aware, because you can be a bully without knowing it," YES member Nick Geeding said. "I want the students to understand what the different types of bullying are and to make them aware of how they treat other people."

YES member Gabby Gire explained Monday would be "We all rock Monday" and students could wear their favorite, school appropriate, rock gear. Tuesday is "Tell something good Tuesday" where students tell something good to someone else and participate in a make a friend ball pit. Wednesday is "Be someone's hero" where students can dress as superheroes. Thursday is "Mix and match to accept others differences," while Friday is "Show your pride and stand up against bullying."

"In the make a friend ball pit, (a ball pit with relationship building questions) I want the kids to see we may be completely different from someone else but we can still have commonalities that link us together," Geeding said.

During the week, one school organization would receive an I Choose Kindness Award.

"We were thinking about nominating one group from the school districts," Gire said. "Organizations can get together and nominate each other based on how the group stands up against bullying and what they do to make a difference in the community. We're going to give the winner a plaque that travels each year to the group that wins."

Tying in with the school's award, Chris Mosbrucker said the Chamber of Commerce would give out a customer service award.

"If a business has employees that are kind, they have good customer service," Mosbrucker said. "From the Chamber's standpoint it will be a customer service award, but we're instilling kindness through it."

In order to fund the Chamber award, she suggested a 'chair'ity auction.

"The charity auction will actually have refurbished chairs," she said. "Different organizations can take an old chair, repurpose it, paint it and then we'll auction those chairs off. We think we can get 20 chairs; we have three so far. We think this will be something our community will be happy to embrace. We're hoping to have a long term sustainable income for this kindness campaign and in general making Vernon County better."

Tricia Bridgewater added a leadership conference for Vernon County schools with anti-bullying speakers is set for June and an anti-bullying summit meeting for the community is set for the next school year.