How can people get involved

How to invite Kirk Smalley from Stand For The Silent to speak at schools about bullying awareness and prevention.
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How can people get involved

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- Laura and I, we lost our boy 3,169 days ago and we've pretty much been doing what we do on our own. We've had a couple of small grants come through. We've had a few donations here and there, we've got a few people that become monthly partners on our website. Donate a dollar a month or five dollars a month. Those are amazing and they help. We go through about 60,000 pledge cards every month. We give pledge cards to every kid that we talk to. And those are expensive. All of the printed material, the little wrist bands that say "I am somebody" on them, we give away by the hundreds and thousands to kids. Just letting them know that they matter. That all costs money. Laura and I have been doing what we do for almost seven years now. We closed our savings account. We pretty much wiped out my retirement to continue the fight that we have. And we can't keep it up by ourselves. It's critical that people realize that a dollar does matter, even if it's just one. It can buy a half a dozen pledge cards for me to give to kids. It can buy six or eight bracelets to hand out to kids. Becoming a donor to Stand for the Silent means the world to us, it truly does. And it actually saves babies lives. I've seen it happen. I've got kids that say "you gave me a wrist band that says I am somebody on it four years ago when I was thinking about killing myself and I'm still here and I still wear it every day." And so when they look at it and they see that somebody cares and that they do matter. Another way people can get involved is you can get me invited to your schools. You don't have to have children in school age to get me invited. All I need is an email from somebody at the school that can schedule a presentation with me. We've got an email address on our website. It's contact@standforthesilent.org that's me. I answer every one of them and get a Principal, a counselor, somebody that'll schedule a presentation to invite us to come and we'll come and talk to your kids and we'll get them involved. They can start a chapter of Stand for the Silent, not only in their school, but we have a lot of them started in our communities as a community chapter that adults can be a part of. To where they can help support the kids in their schools and their areas and give them a place that they feel like they belong. It's not just for victims, it's for anybody. We have a lot of our chapters that have a lot of bullies in them. That realize that, ya know what? I don't wanna be this way anymore and I wanna help fight against it and I wanna help make it change. Keep spreading awareness and to help spread this message around until the whole wide world hears it. That the kinda things that happened to my baby... They're just not gonna be allowed. We're not gonna let it happen to no more kids. No more families, anymore. It's not... I have a list of over 55,000 babies that have taken their own lives because of bullying in the last seven and a half years in this country alone. And the youngest one on it was six years old. We don't even know what life is at six. We gotta make it stop. And it's gonna take us all. When we see bullying behavior as adults, we have to start writing those letters, making those phone calls, sending those emails. If we see it in our politicians, we have to let them know that's not acceptable. When we see it in our workplaces, we have to let them know that we're not gonna allow that. We see it in our professional athletes, those are unacceptable practices. Our kids are learning from you, they look up to you and they think that's acceptable behavior and it's not. You're their hero. Teach them the right way.


How to invite Kirk Smalley from Stand For The Silent to speak at schools about bullying awareness and prevention.

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Kirk Smalley

President, Stand for the Silent

Kirk and Laura Smalley lost their 11 year old son Richard Ty Field on May 13th 2010 to suicide due to constant bullying. Since then they have been speaking out against bullying to over 1,100 schools and community organizations reaching over 1,250,000 youths and adults, as well as meeting with president Obama and the first lady. They have been invited to speak in 42 states and 16 countries to date. Our mantra is a simple statement born from a commitment to a child lost – to stop bullying in our world today.  With unequaled dedication and commitment, they have  tirelessly labored  to inspire a world where our children can be safe and where no other parent feels the agony of a child lost to the effects of bullying.

More Parenting Videos from Kirk Smalley >