Boo 2 Bullying puts Coachella Valley Spotlight grant towards enhancing school presentations
Every month we bring you coverage of the Coachella Valley Spotlight grant. Today, we take a look at “Boo 2 Bullying.” Eye on the Desert’s Caitlin Thropay visited the nonprofit during one of their presentations to a local elementary school to see how they are using their Berger dollars.
“We’ve already reached over 11,250 kids thanks to the Berger foundation,” President and Founder of Boo 2 Bullying, Dimitri Halkidis told News Channel 3.
In April, local nonprofit, Boo 2 Bullying received a $25,000 grant from the H.N. and Frances C. Berger Foundation.
We checked in on them on this National Stop Bullying Day during one of their assemblies at Cathedral City Elementary School.
“The great thing about this year’s assemblies are we are targeting a lot more elementary kids which is very important because giving them the tools to know when they are younger really helps define their years through elementary and middle school and than eventually high school because the dynamics are so different with those transitions,” Halkidis said.
The Berger dollars were used to enhance their assemblies. It went towards updating their bilingual brochures, their videos and finding great ambassadors kids can relate to.
“Even though they hate on me and even though they don’t like this about me, and they want to bully me all the time because of this, they came to my school and showed me that I can still turn that into something positive and help someone else who is going through something,” Solange Signoret, one of the ambassadors said.
Signoret helps students learn how to identify a bully and the difference between having a conflict with someone and being bullied by someone. She also teaches kids what to do if they see someone else getting bullied.
“I learned about being nice to my friends,” Madelyn, one of the students attending the assembly said.
“It’s amazing the amount of positivity we get from our presentations. I hope that we can get it out there more so that people can recognize what we do and say hey this is really needed. Bullying really needs to be a topic that is brought up, and we are really working with the district on getting that resolved,” Signoret said.
But these assemblies wouldn’t be able to have the reach they do today at three Coachella Valley school districts without help from the H.N. and Frances C. Berger Foundation.
“We want to thank them from the bottom of our hearts because we need people like them and everyone in the community to help us,” Halkidis said.
October is National Bullying Prevention month. To learn more about Boo 2 Bullying visit there website here.
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