Did your city wear PINK today?

PINK Shirt Day originated at a high school in Nova Scotia eight years ago. Travis Price was in grade 12 back then and a student three years younger was being bullied on the first day of school simply for wearing a pink shirt, and that didn’t sit well with Price and his friend David Shepherd. They went out that night, bought 75 PINK tank tops and encouraged as many of their classmates as possible via social media to wear the colour the next day.

“We didn’t know what was going to happen. We didn’t know if we’d be the only two in pink or if everybody would be in pink. We show up the next day, we were a school of 1,000 kids, and about 850 kids showed up that day wearing pink, and Pink Shirt Day was born just from that simple act of kindness,” Price explains.

Incredible. I love how those boys used the power of positive action to subvert a hugely negative force like bullying. Eight years later, Pink Shirt Day has come to be recognized as an international symbol against bullying. Every school in our city promotes and celebrates wearing pink. My son’s school sells PINK lemonade at lunch hour all week with proceeds going to the Kids’ Care Club fundraising for helping low-income families in our neighbourhood. My daughter’s school held a “Friendship Dance” with fundraising also.

Even if you didn’t wear a PINK shirt today, you can learn the sign!

To sign PINK in American Sign Language, slide the tip of your middle finger down your lips.