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“Be Kind Always,” NBA Player Befriends Bullied Girl With Cancer

By Mark Chalifoux
Myles Turner and A’Myah Moon
(Twitter/Pacers)

One of the more heartbreaking experiences for a parent is when a kid suffers from bullying. It’s a helpless feeling, and it’s a problem across society. And while movements have been ongoing to combat bullying and increase awareness of it, there’s still a long way to go. This is why it’s powerful when celebrities and sports figures go out of their way to reach out to affected individuals.

A’Myah Moon is an 11-year-old girl with a rare form of cancer. As if that isn’t hard enough, she’s had to endure bullying at her school, culminating in another student pulling off her wig in school last month. Indiana Pacers center Myles Turner is from the same hometown, and the Texas native went out of his way to show support to Moon when the Pacers were in Dallas to face the Mavericks.

Turner heard about her story and invited Moon and her family to the game and spent some time with her prior to the game. He talked to her about how he used to get bullied as a kid.

“You can always be kind to people. No matter what they are doing to you, don’t ever let that affect how you are as a person,” he told her.

Turner, a former first-round draft pick, was a star at the University of Texas. He’s had a solid career in the NBA and is a key contributor for the fifth-place Pacers. But it also shows that players can have a much bigger influence off the court.

“The reason I do this isn’t for the cameras and that kind of stuff,” Turner told the Dallas Morning News. “Kids see us, and we’re larger than life. They see us out on the floor, kind of like superheroes in a sense, doing what we do. When they see us [up close] in person, it’s like, you realize I’m just a human being like you are, too, so I think getting that one-on-one time to talk to her like that is important.”

Turner wore shoes with Moon’s name on them and “Be Kind Always” during the game.

Bullied Boy Inspires Comedian to Raise $450k for Anti-Bullying Causes

By Mark Chalifoux
Comedian Raises Money for Quaden
(Twitter/henryfraser0/funnybrad)

Earlier this week, a tragic video hit social media. A mother in Australia posted a video of her 9-year-old son in tears after being bullied at school. The boy, Quaden, was born with a common form of dwarfism. He has been ridiculed and mocked by other kids most of his life, and after the most recent incident, his mother posted the video and begs viewers to fully understand what bullying does to a child.

In the video, you can see the tear-stained boy, in between fits of sobs, say he wants to die. “This is the effect of bullying on a child who just wants to go to school and get an education,” his mom said. “But every single freaking day, something happens. Another episode, another bullying, another taunt, another name-calling.”

But then comedian Brad Williams, who also was born with a common form of dwarfism, stepped in. He wanted to take a stance against bullying. Williams started a GoFundMe to raise a small amount of money to send the boy and his family to Disney World.

But he had a larger vision in mind.

“This isn’t just for Quaden, this is for anyone who has been bullied in their lives and told they weren’t good enough,” Williams wrote on GoFundMe. “Let’s show Quaden and others, that there is good in the world and they are worthy of it.”

And, well, the internet answered the call. In less than a day, Williams blew past his goal, raising nearly half a million dollars (and counting).

And before you think Quaden and fam are about to go on the most blinged-out Disney World trip of all time, Williams has assured donors and his fans that the extra funds will be donated to anti-bullying causes.

So Quaden will still get the trip of a lifetime, and the backing of a celebrity who can relate to what he’s dealt with. And he also gets to see love and support pouring in from every part of the globe. Even other celebrities have come to his defense, with Wolverine himself (Hugh Jackman) posting a video.

The anti-bullying donations continue to grow, and this is how everyone feels for a change after the internet did something nice.

Tennessee Offers Full Scholarship to Boy Bullied for Homemade T-Shirt

By Mark Chalifoux
Tennessee Offers Full Scholarship
(Twitter/tennalum)

Earlier this week, a story about a university and its fanbase rallying around a bullied student captivated the nation. A boy in Florida wore a homemade University of Tennessee shirt at his school for “college colors day.” He was devastated after getting bullied for his design, which is when his teacher posted about it on Facebook. Vols Nation came through, and the University engineered an outpouring of support. Most importantly, it made the boy’s design an official t-shirt in their shop.

The fansite crashed from so many orders, as Vols fans gobbled up the shirt whose proceeds are being donated to an anti-bullying charity (more than 50, 000 have been ordered). And now the story has taken another turn, as the University of Tennessee has offered the bullied boy a full scholarship.

In a statement, the University said it’s offering the boy “honorary admission” to the class of 2032 in addition to the four-year scholarship. The boy’s mother told University officials the family “has been deeply touched by the overwhelming outpouring from people around the world.”

The anti-bullying lesson and its message have even spread to other schools, as one elementary school in Pennsylvania adopted the idea of wearing orange in honor of anti-bullying for their spirit day. The principal was overwhelmed when the busses dropped off hundreds of his students, many clad in their own homemade orange shirts.

And the boy’s teacher updated her Facebook post, thanking everyone around the world for their support. She said it’s been an awesome week about learning to be kind.

“We’ve had lots of discussions about being kind, and I’m really excited to see my students step up their acts of kindness,” she said.

It was a cool gesture for Tennessee to adopt the shirt in the university store, but I feel like the kid has earned the scholarship at this point, at least for all the great press that this story has generated for the school. They might as well also throw in an honorary degree in graphic design, as he’s probably the best-selling elementary school designer in history.

And if you want to join the movement, you can grab the shirt from the official team shop.

‘Batman’ Accompanies Bullied 3-Yr-Old Girl to Preschool

By Mark Chalifoux
Batman Escorts Bullied 3-Yr-Old
(Facebook/The Batman of Spring Hill)

Despite the recent awareness of bullying and the measures to quell it, sadly, it persists. As a parent, it can be heartbreaking to send your kid off to a bad environment. That’s why we all love stories where the bullied triumph over torment. So here’s another one for you, with a cameo from everyone’s favorite Gotham-based superhero.

A 3-year-old preschooler in Florida was having trouble with bullies at her school. She came home from school one day with bruises, the next with a black eye – apparently, someone threw a shoe at her. Her mom contacted the school, but when nothing changed, she signaled for help. That’s when Batman, or, more accurately, The Batman Of Spring Hill answered the call.

The caped crusader accompanied the girl to school to help her feel better.

Her mom said having Batman there made a big difference for her daughter. She also said that the school has since moved her daughter into an advanced placement class.

“I’m really hoping that a new classroom and having Batman by her side, can change the outcome altogether,” she said. “Batman really saved the day!”

Upperclassmen Help 14-Yr-Old Boy Who Had a Tough Time at His New High School

By Devin Holdraker
Reidsville Upperclassmen sitting with Cale
(Twitter/ThaxtonTimothy)

Freshman year of high school can be a difficult time for anyone, but Cale Wrenn was having a particularly tough first few days. The 14-year-old North Carolina teen who’s attending Reidsville High School was struggling to make friends, and worse, was being bullied for his height.

Cale expressed his frustration to his older sister, Leah, telling her he had to eat lunch alone because a few of his peers thought “he was a loser.” Like any sibling, Leah was moved by her brother’s plight, deciding to post the conversation with Cale to a post on her Twitter account.

Leah’s post immediately caught fire, receiving thousands of comments from people all over the world giving Cale positive affirmation and support. However, a group of teens in Cale’s own community caught wind of the post and did a lot more than send well wishes.

Senior Demontez Canada, a member of the football and basketball teams told local news station WLKY “We decided to catch [Cale] off guard at lunch and have lunch with him and show him around the school and make sure he was OK and give him new friends.” The next day, Canada, along with several of his classmates, did just that. They shared a photo on Twitter, with one of his classmates adding “he always got a place at my table.”

Next up was the Reidsville football team, who posted this photo to their Twitter account:

Leah and Cale were both floored by the outpouring of support.

Cale telling the news outlet “It felt really nice to know that there are people who care,” then commenting on the photo of him and his new friends:

Although Cale is thankful for the massive showing of support, he’s aware not every kid like him will be so lucky. “I know I’m not the only person that sits alone at lunch. In different periods there are different freshmen and juniors and sophomores who sit alone at lunch and I just wish we can do something for them, too. It felt kind of weird, it just being me who got reached out to and I wish we could do something for all of the people who sit alone, give them all someone to sit with at lunch,” said Wrenn.

With just a few moments of their time, these teens gave Cale a day he will never forget, as well as a lesson that will carry him well beyond high school. Cale sharing with the news station “The good part about having friends is that you always have somebody to talk to if you ever need anything.”

Bullied for Homemade Tee, Boy’s Design Is Now Official Team Merch

By Mark Chalifoux
Bullied Boys Design is Official Merch
(Facebook/Laura Snyder Twitter/UTVolShop)

Few things are as provincial as college sports, so I can imagine how tough it would be to support a rival school in hostile territory. Still, a boy in Florida was so excited for his school’s “college colors” day that he saw it as a chance to show his love for the University of Tennessee.

He didn’t have any official UT gear, so he drew a logo and pinned it to an orange shirt. His pride was cut down after getting mocked mercilessly by other kids at the school and the devastated boy was reduced to tears, according to his teacher.

But that’s not where this story ends. His teacher posted about it on Facebook and Tennessee fans came through with an outpouring of gear and support. And the University of Tennessee even adopted the boy’s design to sell as an official shirt in its team shop.

UT is donating a portion of every sale to an anti-bullying organization and the response has been overwhelming so far.

The boy has since received so many different things from UT fans that the entire class got to share in the spoils, the teacher wrote on Facebook.

“While the kids were filling water bottles and waiting to water down their towels, it made this teacher so proud to see the kids congratulating my student,” she wrote. “High fives, hugs, pats on the back could be seen from the kids. This experience is uniting my class even more than I could have imagined, and it was truly amazing to witness!!”

And the boy’s mom was overjoyed by the support, according to a letter she sent the teacher.

“I can tell you that I spent a lot of my day reading all the kind words in support of my son and am touched beyond words,” his mother wrote.

Tennessee got so many orders for the shirt that the site crashed. You can grab yours from the official fan shop.