Research shows that 1 in 2 young people will, at some point, experience bullying. As a result, 1 in 3 will self-harm, grades will drop and 14% will develop eating disorders. ARE YOU AN UPSTANDER?
A friendly word or gesture is all it takes to stop a bully, and anyone can do that. If an upstander witnesses bullying and becomes involved in a non-threatening manner, the bullying stops in less than 10 seconds 85% of the time.
YOU CAN STOP THE PROBLEM… BE PART OF THE SOLUTION.
February 12th is our designated Anti-Bully Awareness Night where the PONTIACS take on the visiting Grande Prairie STORM. Wear pink and join the Bonnyville PONTIACS organization in using our game to show your support in saying no to bullying.
The commitment from Canadian Natural has allowed the Bonnyville PONTIACS players to reach impressionable youth in our Lakeland Schools through discussions involving the issues surrounding bullying as well as the importance of Respect. From past experience and feedback the presentations provided, have had a positive lasting impact on young students, and that impact was significantly increased especially when the message was delivered by a positive role model.
The PONTIAC players dispense an extremely important message to impressionable youth at a time in their lives when bullying is tremendously prevalent in our schools and in our society. It also allows the young leaders in our society to become influential role models to the youth in our community by ‘giving back’ to make a genuine difference beyond the confines of the ice arena.
With the generous support of Canadian Natural the Bonnyville PONTIACS continue to be a part of the Lakeland School Respect Awareness Program delivering important life skills messages surrounding the troubling issues of bullying.
With the Bonnyville PONTIACS, we strongly encourage our players to learn and embrace teamwork which involves sacrifice for one another in pursuit of the ‘bigger picture’ in sports and in life. In a team setting, we encourage all of our players to choose and become solid role models and to get involved in helping others everyday – to learn and embrace important character attributes such as accountability, pride, and selflessness in pursuit of a 'larger perspective’ in life. Because of the negative impact that bullying has on our society, the Bonnyville PONTIACS are always excited to partner with Canadian Natural to play a key role in delivering important life skills to our youth.