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GA Students Create Anti-Bullying Display

Staff and students from GALC pose with their window display outside Crown Street Roasting Co. located at 16 W. Third Street in downtown Jamestown. Submitted photo

October is National Bullying Prevention Month. To recognize this, teachers and students at the G.A. Learning Center recently partnered with Crown Street Roasting Co. and the county Department of Mental Hygiene’s Suicide Prevention Program to raise awareness of the serious effects of bullying.

Every day thousands of young people experience bullying from their peers while at school, after school in their neighborhoods, and through social media and texts.

As a way to support bullying prevention and heighten its awareness, students from GALC, staff from Family Services of the Chautauqua Region, and the owners of Crown Street Roasting Co. have installed a window display to teach customers and pedestrians the value of kindness.

“It’s our duty as teachers to promote kindness, giving, and teamwork as much as we possibly can,” said Lucia Guarnieri, reading specialist at GALC. The theme of the display, borrowed from the popular Pixar/Walt Disney film UP, is ‘Lift Each Other Up.”

The students who participated in the event collaborated with others to design and install the window display. To reward each of their efforts, the students were treated to hot chocolate and a pizza party. They received a certificate for being “Bullying Prevention Specialists” as well.

“As adults, we often do not provide students the opportunity to have a voice; to make an impact,” said Dr. Kristin Garaas-Johnson, GALC director of education. “We’d like to give a special thanks to our community partners at FSCR who spearheaded this outreach opportunity for us at GALC as well as Mike and Sarah Bigney, owners of Crown Street Roasting Co., for this opportunity.”

To learn more about G.A. Learning Center, visit gafamilyservices.org or call 716-665-2772.

G.A. Learning Center and G.A. Family Services are a part of Lutheran, a Christian organization that offers a continuum of care that supports an individual’s journey through life with compassion, dignity and respect.

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