The Pink Shirt Day annual campaign to raise awareness of the negative impacts of bullying is Wednesday, February 22, 2017. The first Pink Shirt Day was started by two high school students in Nova Scotia to fight back against homophobic bullying in their school.

Here is a snippet of a good Globe & Mail article that describes how Pink Shirt Day began:

“David Shepherd, Travis Price and their teenage friends organized a high-school protest to wear pink in sympathy with a Grade 9 boy who was being bullied [for wearing a pink shirt]…[They] took a stand against bullying when they protested against the harassment of a new Grade 9 student by distributing pink T-shirts to all the boys in their school.  ‘I learned that two people can come up with an idea, run with it, and it can do wonders,’ says Mr. Price, 17, who organized the pink protest. ‘Finally, someone stood up for a weaker kid.’ So Mr. Shepherd and some others headed off to a discount store and bought 50 pink tank tops. They sent out a message to schoolmates that night, and the next morning they hauled the shirts to school in a plastic bag. As they stood in the foyer handing out the shirts, the bullied boy walked in. His face spoke volumes. ‘It looked like a huge weight was lifted off his shoulders,’ Mr. Price recalled.  The bullies were never heard from again.”

Bullying continues to be a very serious issue in our schools, workplaces, and online. Let’s work together to end it. Help us show our communities that we care and are committed to ending bullying.

#PinkShirtDay #PinkShirtPromise