Special to the Register
Gainesville Daily Register
Gainesville —
Students at St. Mary’s Catholic School in Gainesville recently watched their anti-bullying campaign take flight.
The weeklong project against aggressive and cruel behaviour encouraged St. Mary’s students, teachers and staff to “take a stand against bullying.”
The event included a balloon release and a “rise up against bullying” day during which each class was assigned a color to wear to school.
Eighth grader and Student Council co-president, Mary Gerken, addressed the students explaining the assigned colored to the classes. “Individually we are just one person, but together as a group, we are a rainbow. Together, we can shine brightly and do great things.”
Students with helium filled balloons and gathered outside to line up with their colors to form a rainbow. The students — balloons in hand — all recited the Hail Mary, said a silent prayer, and released their balloons into the air to “rise up against bullying.”
As the balloons were released no one could take their eyes off them as they headed up into the atmosphere. All stared upward, watching as the balloons released up individually soon were moved by the wind to form a unified collection of prayers and hope headed higher and higher into the sky.
