Olivia Dawson (left) with the Lloydminster Public School Division Art Academy teamed up with artist Brandi Hofer to help launch the Lloydminster and District Co-op’s new Kindness Wins anti-bullying campaign on Feb. 1. Geoff Lee Meridian Source
Everyone is as unique as a thumbprint or a rainbow for that matter.
That was some of the thinking that went into a collaborative design for this year’s Lloydminster and District Co-op’s Kindness Wins campaign and its anti-bullying message.
New blue and pink T-shirts and hoodies depicting a thumbprint with a rainbow logo are on sale now at participating Co-op gas bars and grocery store locations following the official launch last Thursday.
“We did something a little different this year,” said Lloydminster artist Brandi Hofer.
She helped Lloydminster Public School Division (LPSD) Art Academy students and the Co-op nail down the design last summer.
“We worked together to create something really big that impacts our community. We had the students actually create the concept, then the execution of the design,” said Hofer.
“Each of our students in the art academy class drew a line in the digital design, one line alone is not as strong, but when you come together, you have the power to create something larger, beyond what you imagined for yourself.”
Art academy student Olivia Dawson teamed up with Hofer to model the shirts and explain how the thumbprint and the rainbow represent inclusivity.
The final product includes the use of LPSD blue in the T-shirts too.
Kindness Wins encourages Lloydminster and area citizens to stand up for kindness, inclusion, and respect and is in its 14th year.
“We’re wearing pink for anti-bullying and we’re just really excited to be part of this program,” said Co-op’s CEO Peter Brown.
“We’re excited and it aligns with the values of Co-op in bringing the community together.”
Kindness Wins is modelled after Pink Shirt Day, which is hosted across Canada on the last Wednesday in February, supporting anti-bullying education.
That message means the world to the Lloydminster Community Youth Centre chair Maheen Mangia and her young peers.
“This is really important to us because we hold our podcasts and we hold events to show the next generation how to be inspired to be kind,” she said.
The Co-op program has raised more than $42,000 to date in support of local anti-bullying programs, training, and initiatives through the work of its charity partner, Beyond Borders Circle of Change.
That’s a coalition of non-profits including the Lloydminster public and Catholic school divisions, Alberta Health Services, Saskatchewan Health Authority, Lloydminster Community Youth Centre, and Lloydminster Sexual Assault Services.
The members work together to create a connected community where all individuals feel respected, proud, safe, and cared for, thanks in part to some funding from the sale of Kindness Wins merchandise.
“The money that’s raised as part of this campaign goes towards grants which are distributed throughout the Lloydminster public and Catholic school divisions,” said Circle of Change board member, Riley Gilroyed.
He says over the last six years, there have been over 90 different grants at the two school divisions.
“We also do Kindness is Power (KIP) which is anti-bullying and healthy relationship training. It’s facilitated by high school students,” said Gilroyed.
One of the trainers is Reece Miazga, a Grade 11 student at Lloyd Comp who talked about the scope of the program next year.
That’s when the Grade 5s she’s been teaching shift to middle schools and Grade 9s to high school.
“Our goal with the KIP thing is we want to come together as a community for when the new high schoolers come in—that we show kids what kindness really is because the bullying in high school is hard to go through,” said Miazga.
“We really want to show the Grade 9s coming in this year how it’s really done with kindness.”
