Thu 31 Mar 2011 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
The staunch youth-led stance against bullying will go up another level on April 14, with t-shirt companies and ice cream parlours among those unleashing Pink Shirt Day initiatives. Rainbow Youth Executive Director Thomas Hamilton says the Pink Shirt Day campaign has increased in momentum each year and this year it has continued to have people interested and wanting to be involved. “This day is to promote the elimination of bullying in schools for all students, as a community group that supports queer youth we see it is essential to take an active role in this campaign, but we are campaigning alongside our fellow queer youth community groups and organizations such as Mental Health Foundation and Mr Vintage, Giapo and Q-Youth to promote bullying to stop for all students and young people not just queer youth.” Mr Vintage has designed special Pink Shirt Day t-shirts, with 25 per cent of the proceeds going to Rainbow Youth and its work supporting queer youth. The shirts went on sale at Grab One yesterday for $20 and were snapped up like hotcakes, with Labour MP Charles Chauvel and out Olympic speed skater Blake Skjellerup among those to nab one. They will be sold on Mr Vintage's site for $29.95 from Friday. Auckland ice cream parlour Giapo will sell a special pink ice cream on April 14 called, "Stop Bullying, Eat Pink" and the Giapo will all be wearing Mr Vintage Pink Shirt Day tees. A number of organisations are backing Pink Shirt Day campaigns and Rainbow Youth is thanking them for their help, along with the support of its patrons Tamati Coffey, Philip Patston, Georgina Beyer and Blake Skjellerup.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Thursday, 31st March 2011 - 4:01pm