From the Stevens Point Journal (11/6/2014)

“Bullying is a significant issue in the lives of today’s youth. Nearly one in three students (27.8 percent) report being bullied during the school year and only 36 percent of students reported the bullying, according to PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center.

However, the Boys & Girls Club of Portage County does not stand for any kind of bullying. Since October is Bullying Prevention Month, we wanted to take a stand. On Oct. 22, also known as Unity Day nationally, our Club members (from first-graders to teens) were asked to wear orange to support an anti-bullying atmosphere at the Boys & Girls Club.

Our Club members and staff were more than excited to wear orange and support this cause that hit so close to home. One fact that our youth were taught is that students who experience bullying are at an increased risk for depression, anxiety, sleep difficulties and poor school adjustment, according to PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center. After learning about the negative facts of bullying, several of the Club sites decided to create anti-bullying videos!

Check them out here:

Jefferson School Site Stop Bullying, www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqiAa9BEaUg

Junction City School Site Stop Bullying, www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PLw6xQKC80

In conjunction with anti-bullying month and thanks to the support of the Community Foundation of Central Wisconsin, we are able to run our Youth for Unity program each year. This program aims to promote and celebrate diversity while combating prejudice, bigotry and discrimination. Youth for Unity features age-appropriate programming for youth, teens and their parents. This program builds the capacity of our Boys & Girls Club to help our members appreciate themselves as unique and special individuals, understand diversity in society, recognize biases, and take personal leadership in confronting these biases.

Thanks to this effort, we know that our Club members have learned the negative effects of bullying and will be advocates to stop bullying when they see it in the future. If you would like more information on bullying statistics or cyberbullying, feel free to check out the below links.

National Bullying Prevention Month Statistics, www.pacer.org/bullying/info/stats.asp

*Cyberbullying Information for Parents, https://www.bgca.org/news-stories/2021/October/what-to-do-about-cyberbullying

Today, thanks to the generous support of the Portage County community, the Boys & Girls Club of Portage County serves 1,200 to 1,500 youth per year, with seven site locations scattered across Portage County. For only $10 per year, any child can attend the Boys & Girls Club after school and are included in all of our programming including Power Hour (homework help), LEAP (reading program), Triple Play (physical activity) and Healthy Habits (smart lifestyle choices). We welcome new Club members each day, and hope you will walk through our doors to see what we are all about. Great futures start at the Boys & Girls Club, so we hope to see you there!

For more information or to enroll your child, call 715-341-4386, email us at info@bgclubpc.org, visit our website at www.bgclubpc.org, or like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bgclubpc to see what we are up to each day at our Club sites!

Kevin Quevillon is executive director for the Boys & Girls Club of Portage County. To reach him, call 715-341-4386 or email kevin.quevillon@bgclubpc.org."



*The link listed in the original article no longer works. This article from 2021 is comparable.