The purpose of the Buddy Bench is for any child that feels alone, sad, or left out, to go sit on the buddy bench with the hope that other children will take notice and befriend that child. We hope that by implementing the motto of "Be a Buddy, not a bully" this will encourage children to stand up against bullying in elementary schools. As a Candidate for Miss Pleasant Grove 2014, Kaylie McGee has
joined the powers and ideas of the Mean Stinks campaign against bullying and the Buddy Bench. She plans to place a Buddy Bench in every elementary school in Pleasant Grove and ect. The idea behind the Buddy bench comes from the inspiration a 2nd grader named Christian Buck, who saw a problem in his elementary school and had an incredible idea to do something about it. He bought the idea of the Buddy Bench to his school as a bench to be placed in the playground for anyone that needed a friend. I teamed up with “Mean Stinks”, a national anti-bullying campaign. This amazing organization is based on encouraging children to do the “Blue Pinky Pledge” a pledge to stand against bullying by painting your pinky fingernail blue to show you gang up for good. I created my program of “Be a Buddy, not a Bully” and put the “Buddy Bench” into action. With the hard work of a local eagle scout we were able to build, paint and place both benches in each elementary playground. I contacted 2 elementary schools in Pleasant Grove, Grovecrest and Manila, to be the first in Utah to receive their “buddy bench”. I organized an assembly to tell my story, teach the anti-bullying information and present the buddy bench and its purpose. The response was overwhelming, with the help of National Honor Society we were able to set up “Blue Pinky” stations at both schools and paint over 1400 students pinkies blue (Boys included). Each student was so excited to make the pledge to stand up against bullying. Please help me as we pledge to stand up against bullying and put a stop to bullying in elementary school. Please share and like our page!