October means much more than pumpkins, costumes, football and Pumpkin Spice Lattes. You might even recognize the month of October as Breast Cancer Awareness Month. But now, Disney Channel is shining light on the fact that it's also National Bullying Prevention Month!
The new Disney Channel campaign is called 'Choose Kindness' and will star over twenty Disney Channel, Radio Disney and Disney XD stars to come together in a campaign to raise awareness about bullying, and aim their efforts at young children. This public service campaign will start teaching children how to cope with bullying, and ways to prevent it.
"The initiative includes a public service campaign featuring Alex Angelo, the 14-year-old host of Radio Disney's "Saturday Night Party" with Alex Angelo. Those PSAs will air starting Oct. 1. The PSAs will also air in video form on Club Penguin, a virtual world where children can spread the word about bullying prevention, according to a release today from Disney Channel.The initiative will also unfold through interstitials – which are short video messages that typically appear between longer programs." –ABC News
This idea is brilliant. Many young children turn to Disney Channel stars as role models, so this effort could potentially be wildly successful. Since there's almost always a conflict and a solution in every episode, many lessons could be taught to young children. As they watch their favorite shows, it will hopefully inspire them to overcome their bullying issues and stray them away from ever being a part of it. It's refreshing to see Disney using their reach to raise awareness about something as noteworthy as bullying, and focusing their efforts more on this issue rather than Halloween this October.
The campaign will also be off-screen and on Disney's Be Inspired website to even reach out to parents and provide them with supplemental resources if their child is affected by bullies.
The 'Choose Kindness' campaign will be in episodes of shows such as "Boy Meets Girl," "Austin & Ally" and many others that have not been announced yet.
"'Choose Kindness' is part of the Disney ABC Television Group's efforts to create a bullying prevention campaign to encourage children and parents across the nation to help put an end to bullying by choosing kindness. The campaign’s partners include the nonprofit GLSEN, Pacer’s National Bullying Prevention Center and GLAAD." –ABC News
Here's a sneak peek look at the "Boy Meets Girl" episode that is airing on October 17:
Stand up to bullying and always choose kindness!