Visitors to the “Yes We Can” (YWC) Community Center in New Cassel will notice dozens of colorful footprints on the walls throughout the center, urging people to be an “upstander,” and not a bystander to incidents of bullying.
These artful and meaningful footprints were created by the dozens of youngsters attending the Center’s Summer Activity Program and are part of the Not In Our Town (NIOT) summer film program. The program offered free films for community gatherings to galvanize support for hate crime response and prevention.
North Hempstead Town Supervisor Judi Bosworth and Council Member Viviana Russell recently conducted a film viewing followed by a discussion and art project. There were more than 60 attendees in the summer activities program at YWC, who varied in age, from 7 to 12 years old.
“When I learned about Not In Our Town’s free summer film program, I knew that we had a wonderful opportunity to reach a large number of young people with an anti-hate, anti-bullying message,” said Supervisor Bosworth.
“The film about leaving positive footprints served as an inspirational teaching tool to the children in our summer activities program,” said Council Member Russell. “I know they enjoyed the project and were proud of their work being displayed around the community center for everyone to see.”
The program included having the children view a film called “Leaving a Positive Footprint,” that told the story of how students at Grimmer Elementary School in Freemont, California worked together to make the school a “bully-free zone.”
Everyone at YWC’s Summer Activity program, traced their feet, cut them out and then wrote inspirational sayings, and anti-bullying slogans. The “positive footprints” were then hung on the walls throughout the facility to help inspire other people to be “upstanders.”
“The anti-bullying message really resounded with our young people in the summer program,” said the Supervisor. “They were all so creative and thoughtful in making their footprints and I know that they will carry that anti-bullying message though to their own schools in September.”
NIOT addresses issues of hate and bullying, with the goal of building safe, inclusive communities for all. The Town continues to support this movement today. The Town of North Hempstead became involved in the NIOT program in 2017.
To check out the project, visit: https://youtu.be/NkWvDa5yPYU
Viewers can also watch the program on NHTV, go to Channels 18 or 63 on Cablevision or Channel 46 on Verizon, or visit: www.myNHTV.com or www.youtube.com/townofnorthhempstead.
