250 guests gather at Laurel Packinghouse for Pink Shirt Day event

On Wednesday morning, Okanagan Boys and Girls Clubs filled the Laurel Packinghouse with 250 guests to celebrate Pink Shirt Day.

It was the sixth annual Pink Shirt Day event presented by TELUS, with a special focus on the theme 'lift each other up and be kind' as a preventative approach to bullying.

Guests came from all factions of the community to attend the sold-out event, including RCMP, SD23, corporate companies and members of city council.

“It was just an amazing event and a very symbolic event," says Okanagan Boys and Girls Club chief executive Diane Entwistle. 

"It’s a really neat way to bring together folks. Everybody’s wearing pink and that says you know I’m making a personal commitment, a community commitment, a professional commitment, to just be a little more kind and a little bit more empathetic and a little more inclusive.”

Entwistle says that in the past Pink Shirt Day has been focused on anti-bullying, but over the last couple of years they have changed the theme from what shouldn't be done, to what should be done.

“That’s where the theme of kindness and lifting each other up comes from."

Guest speaker Linda Edgecombe encouraged the audience at the morning breakfast event with a message on what kindness looks like in our day-to-day lives.

“She’s fantastic and incredibly humorous," says Entwistle. "She’s a big friend of the Boys and Girls Club so we were really thrilled to have her here, to challenge us all to think about how it is we can leave here today and figure out how we can do an act of kindness and really change our attitude and perception of others."

The event was supported by volunteers from Best Buy, RBC and Old Navy who spent time Tuesday and early Wednesday morning preparing the venue and serving guests.

For more information on Pink Shirt Day, visit https://www.pinkshirtday.ca.