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Pink Shirt Day 2021 kicks off with virtual event

“When you’re functioning from a place of kindness, there’s no way that bullying can exist.”

It’s Pink Shirt Day and even though the Okanagan Boys and Girls Clubs aren’t able to host their annual breakfast event due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, they’re encouraging everyone to keep kindness in mind.

Community engagement coordinator Richelle Leckey said they wanted to keep continue to celebrate the day starting with a breakfast, but instead of meeting at the Laurel Packinghouse like in years past, they decided to adapt the event into Breakfast in a Box.

Each box contains breakfast items, various rose-coloured items and ideas for activities on how to celebrate Pink Shirt Day.

“There’ll be boxes all up and down in the valley to celebrate Pink Shirt Day,” she said.

“People who have purchased a box will get a link to do a Zoom call with us for a brief proclamation by the City of Kelowna and a short address by our CEO. We’re really just trying to inspire everybody to be kind and lift each other up.”

Leckey said we may not be able to celebrate together, but the important thing to remember is that it’s easy to be kind to someone.

“It’s as simple as sending out a kind email to someone you’re thinking about, or maybe calling them… a text message, it could be a variety of things,” she said.

“If you’re out getting groceries, saying a simple thank you goes a long way. It doesn’t have to be a big thing.

“When you’re functioning from a place of kindness, there’s no way that bullying can exist and that’s our hope: that one day, with everybody being kind and caring and inclusive, that bullying, whether kids or adults, won’t exist anymore.”

Leckey added the hope is that people keep being kind to each other on Pink Shirt Day and beyond.

READ: Okanagan students come together to express the importance of kindness


Twila Amato
Video journalist, Black Press Okanagan
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Twila Amato

About the Author: Twila Amato

Twila was a radio reporter based in northern Vancouver Island. She won the Jack Webster Student Journalism Award while at BCIT and received a degree in ancient and modern Greek history from McGill University.
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