Children’s March A Huge Success!

The Thousand Youth March for Humanity brought together more than 1,300 students by official estimates, from kindergarten through college, along with some 500 or more adults. We all united in downtown Fort Lauderdale on Sunday, November 16 – a picture perfect day! Our message was simple: “We want no bullying around!” We delivered that message loud and clear, with original songs and poetry slams and dance and great speeches of hope. To our knowledge, this event was a first anywhere in the United States.

It’s just one example of what The Humanity Project is all about: Finding practical ways to help fulfill human potential, such as stopping bullying. Listen for our next podcast, at the end of this month, which will help explain more fully what we’re really trying to accomplish. This group is not New Age, not religious. Our efforts are practical and our ideas are rooted in realities we all would recognize in our individual lives. Stay tuned for that program. But for now, thanks to everyone who helped make The Humanity Project’s Thousand Youth March for Humanity such a powerful anti-bullying message.

Frequently Asked Questions: Thousand Youth March for Humanity

Q: What are the basic details? Who is doing this? Where, when, etc.?

Conceived and organized by the nonprofit group, The Humanity Project, the Thousand Youth March for Humanity will bring together more than 1,000 students, grades K – 12, to march for an end to school bullying. The march will be held on Sunday, November 16, 2008, rain or shine. It will begin at Huizenga Plaza in downtown Fort Lauderdale and proceed for 8/10ths of a mile through closed, police-protected streets back to the plaza for a rally with bands, balloons, brief speeches and a call-and-response anti-bullying chant from the crowd.

Q: What time should participants arrive and how long will the march and rally be?

The march begins promptly at 1 p.m. Walking time is likely to be about 45 minutes for all marchers to complete the route. The rally will begin immediately after the march itself and will end by 3 p.m. Participants should arrive by noon on march day and will be free to go right after the rally ends. Buses will line up at 3 p.m. to pick up students who came by bus.

Q: What is the march route?

The march will begin at the plaza, located on the corner of Andrews Avenue and Las Olas Boulevard, then head north to Broward Boulevard, east to SE 3rd Avenue, south to Las Olas Boulevard, then west on Las Olas back to the plaza. Students, parents, teachers, administrators, volunteers and the public will gather in the plaza and street for the rally.

Q: You said “rain or shine.” This march really will happen even if it rains?

Definitely. Even if it rains. In fact, this strong statement against bullying becomes even stronger if students turn out in large numbers despite challenging weather. Just bring ponchos, umbrellas or whatever else you need to stay dry.

Q: I’d like to know more about the reasons behind the march and about The Humanity Project.

Go to their website at www.thehumanityproject.com and listen to their September podcast or read their blogs about the march.

Q: Ok, how can I take part?

Contact The Humanity Project’s president and founder, Bob Knotts, at 954-205-2722 or email him at rsk1writer@bellsouth.net.

Q: Where should I park for the march?

The public parking garage near the main library has plenty of room. There’s also public parking at garages just north and west of the plaza in the Riverwalk area. Make sure to arrive early so you can find a good space and get to the march at noon.

Q: How do I volunteer to help?

Again, call or email The Humanity Project at the number or address listed above.

Q: I know someone who might want to sponsor or donate to help pay for this important event. How can they do that?

The Humanity Project is urgently seeking sponsors and donors to cover the substantial costs of the Thousand Youth March for Humanity. In return, those sponsors and donors will be given broad public exposure for their community involvement through the media, Internet, flyers, banners and more. Just call 954-205-2722 to help. Our current sponsors now include Nova Southeastern University, Florida Marlins, AutoNation, Children's Services Council, Yellow Strawberry Global Hair Salon, Freeman Orthodontics, Framing By Morris, Downtown Development Authority, State Farm and Office Depot Foundation.

Marching Forward

At The Humanity Project, we’re very pleased. The Broward School Board, which runs the sixth largest school district in the United States, has officially declared Sunday, November 16, “Thousand Youth March for Humanity Day.” This unprecedented event will bring together students from kindergarten through 12th grade to take back their schools from the bullies. Thank you for this honor, Broward School Board. We also want to thank our growing list of sponsors, which now includes Nova Southeastern University, Florida Marlins, State Farm, AutoNation, Freeman Orthodontics, Downtown Development Authority, Yellow Strawberry Global Hair Salon and Children’s Services Council of Broward County. Next month, we all will join together with thousands of students and community groups and churches and arts organizations with one simple purpose: to make bullying socially unacceptable. We hope you’ll want to help our effort in whatever ways you can. Just go to the Contact Us page at www.thehumanityproject.com to call or email for more information. Or donate at our Join/Donate page at this same website. Thanks!

Thanks, Nova!

As The Humanity Project continues our hard work on the fast-approaching Thousand Youth March for Humanity, we have reason today to celebrate. We welcome an important new sponsor to our efforts: Nova Southeastern University, an influential institution in South Florida. NSU has just joined our growing list of supporters for this big event, which is a march by students to end bullying in their schools. In effect, the students are taking back their own school yards, halls and classrooms from the troublemakers. It's part of The Humanity Project's programs to help make bullying socially unacceptable behavior. We’re proud that NSU wants to work with us.

Nova is based in the Fort Lauderdale area, with a lovely 300-acre campus and more than 26,000 students. It’s the largest independent institution of higher learning in the southeastern United States. The university also boasts a group of experts on the issue of bullying. We gratefully add NSU to a sponsor list that, as of this writing, also includes the Florida Marlins Major League Baseball team, AutoNation, Downtown Development Authority, Children’s Services Council and our old friends at Yellow Strawberry Global Hair Salon. Thanks to each of you and to Nova. Together, we can help end school bullying – and help prevent the psychological and physical damage to kids that often results from this abuse. The Thousand Youth March for Humanity can serve as our rallying point for change.

Thousand Youth March for Humanity

I hope you’ll listen to our new podcast, which is titled exactly the same as this blog: “Thousand Youth March for Humanity.” It will explain more than I can in this brief space about the unprecedented event The Humanity Project is organizing and leading this fall. On Sunday, November 16, we’ll head up a march of more than 1,000 school kids, grades K – 12, to stop school bullying. Think about that. When is the last time you’ve heard of students from five-years-old to 18-years-old coming together for anything? Then ask yourself when you’ve heard of kids from vastly different economic and ethnic backgrounds supporting the same cause. Then think about this: Have you ever heard of a massive number of students marching to take back their own schools from the bullies? I suspect the answer to all those questions is that, no you haven’t heard about this before. That’s why the Thousand Youth March for Humanity is unique. Our sponsors right now include the Florida Marlins, AutoNation, Yellow Strawberry Global Hair Salon, Downtown Development Authority and Children’s Services Council. But we need more sponsors and donors – lots more. An event this huge doesn’t come cheap. We hope the whole community will come together to say that bullying must be seen as socially unacceptable from now on, like drunk driving. Bullying is dangerous. Bullying damages and sometimes destroys young lives. This march can be the beginning of a new attitude about school abuse and violence. Because bullying isn’t just kids being kids. It’s kids harming kids. This march is our chance to join together and deliver one simple, powerful message about bullying: “Enough!”

Our Anti-bullying Work

At our first meeting with the nation’s sixth largest school district, The Humanity Project had one clear message: “We believe that bullying must become socially unacceptable, just like such things as drunk driving or smoking in crowds.” That remains our goal in all our anti-bullying efforts. We believe strongly that students, parents and teachers must begin to view bullying differently. It’s no longer kids just being kids. Bullying is socially destructive behavior.

We’re proud of the Thousand Youth March for Humanity that we conceived and will now organize and lead, a major public anti-bullying event that's unprecedented in Florida and perhaps in the United States. More than 1,000 students, from grades K – 12, will march through the streets on Sunday, November 16, 2008 to take back their own schools from the bullies. We think that the message delivered by these youths will be as clear as our original comment to the Broward County school district: “Bullying must become socially unacceptable.” News coverage is likely to help us deliver that message far beyond the borders of Broward County in South Florida.

The Humanity Project also created our own innovative anti-bullying program that we’ll take into those same South Florida schools beginning later this year – and we’re very proud of this as well. Our entertaining, thought-provoking half-hour presentation will be seen by elementary school students. Again, the message is very clear: “Bullying hurts everyone in school, not just kids who are bullied. So everyone must view bullying as socially unacceptable behavior.” It’s all part of The Humanity Project’s mission to show the many real, practical connections that link human beings – and the ways that we can lead our lives for the betterment of both humanity and ourselves at the same time. Helping yourself, helping humanity. That’s The Humanity Project.

Anti-Bullying Efforts and The Humanity Project

I want to fire off a quick blog to tell you about this website’s latest podcast, which deals with anti-bullying efforts in South Florida. I also want to let you know a little about The Humanity Project’s new anti-bullying program. This work fits nicely with our group’s mission, which is non-religious and science-based. The Humanity Project is all about helping individuals to lead fuller, happier lives through giving. We call this unconditional giving – that is, contributing to society without worrying what’s in it for us. We also promote the idea of a common bond among all individuals. Our program for elementary schools focuses on making bullying socially unacceptable, including the introduction of this idea: “If you hurt someone, you hurt yourself. But if you help someone, you also help yourself!” That message is just one part of the overall program that shows students why bullying is a bad thing for everyone. Our work especially centers on persuading so-called bystanders – those children who aren’t bullies or bullying victims. If we can get all students, along with adults in the schools and parents, to agree that bullying is socially unacceptable, the school culture will slowly change.

The sixth largest school district in the United States is already tackling this issue in a big way. Broward County, Florida is the home of Fort Lauderdale. It’s also a place where a progressive, forward-thinking school board and superintendent have made anti-bullying a priority. Superintendent James F. Notter and the board members have appointed a task force to recommend specific curricula and policies for the coming school year. In charge of that task force are two terrific women: Shelly Heller, an attorney and mother of four, and Aimee Wood, a school prevention specialist. I hope you’ll check out May’s podcast, just posted at www.thehumanityproject.com, featuring an interview with Shelly Heller about all this.

If you want to contact Shelly or anyone in the school system about these anti-bullying efforts, you can do it in a couple of ways. You can email The Humanity Project at rsk@thehumanityproject.com and we’ll forward it. Or you can go to the Broward school district website at www.browardschools.com and look for contact information there. The Humanity Project sits on two of the five subcommittees working to create Broward’s anti-bullying curricula and policies – and we’re proud of that work. We hope to lend our innovative ideas to the anti-bullying efforts in Broward County, Florida for a long time. And we will be happy to share our program with other school districts or organizations anywhere in the world.
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