A group of professional athletes will speak to student athletes today at McMath and Hugh Boyd secondary schools, sending a clear message that bullying others is wrong.
The athletes are part of a cross-country tour with Athletes Against Bullying Alliance, a grassroots organization, that kicked off in Surrey Thursday.
Canadian Football League athletes Will Loftus and Ricky Foley will speak along with kart racer Philip Orcic and stock car racer Carolyn Thomas.
Saskatchewan resident John Tokar founded the organization, which takes a slight twist on how to send anti-bullying messages.
Tokar believes kids are being bombarded so much with anti-bullying messages that it's often like "beating a dead horse."
"The approach we take here is we collect the student athletes and speak to them directly. They can really relate to the athletes there and talk about being an all around good person," said Tokar.
Tokar started AABA because as a child he faced bullies himself. Through playing sports as a teenager and young adult he says he found a way to channel his negative experiences into positive ones. As an adult he used a few connections to the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the organization snowballed into something bigger. "I started thinking about how to link athletics to helping people who are being bullied," said Tokar who believes athletes get a bad reputation on television and in movies.
"You see the kid with the lettered jacket slamming kids into lockers. It's not like that," he said.
Rather, Tokar sees athletes as leaders in their schools and as such they have the power to stop bullying. He's hoping the professional athletes can motivate the students.
For Thomas, 18, it will be her first public address. The North Delta resident is a professional stock car racer who competes in competes in Washington State.
"Even through sports people get bullied, especially when you're the youngest or the only female, like I am," said Thomas.
Thomas recounts times when older drivers have purposefully crashed into her or not given her due credit, simply because she's a female in a male-dominated sport.
The speakers will present at Hugh Boyd at 11:30 a.m. and McMath at 1:30 p.m. The presentations are being sponsored by Big Kahuna Sports.
