Last fall, a charity out of Toronto contacted me to see if I was interested in running one of their anti-bullying programs here in Calgary. The founder’s brother-in-law, Randy Srochenski, used to be the long snapper for the Toronto Argonauts and that’s how I got connected with them. They do a lot of work with inner city youth and underprivileged kids.
I was approached in October to create and run a program. I did a lot of research right after the Grey Cup right up until January. I searched web and government sites, iTunes U anti-bullying courses and contacted Bill Belsey — a prominent anti-bullying activist. One of my friends who does a lot of work for the Alberta Government had a contact who set up a program that lacked funding. That person handed me all their resources. I had everything at the tips of my fingers.
I grabbed all these highly accredited programs, I figured out what they were teaching and then I just studied. I probably spent more hours studying than most people even take in an anti-bullying class. I took notes and I literally became — I’m not going to say overnight, but over the course of two months — became an expert in anti-bullying. I don’t think I’ve learned it all, but I’ve learned enough to be able to give a complete presentation from start to finish, whether it’s at the young or old ages. It’s probably one of the more fulfilling things I’ve done.
The program I came up with, Tackle Bullying, is loosely based on a program called Dare to Care which is a highly endorsed program run through schools. I was given the mandate to go to 10 schools per month and present this program. It’s been very, very rewarding. It’s taught me a lot about myself, it’s taught me about kids, it’s taught me about things I didn’t even know and it’s pretty interesting.
I tell the kids that I’m there to tackle bullying which is a prevalent social issue from kindergarten all the way up to the adult world. I relate it a lot to football. I tell them I’m delivering them a playbook and I relate it to when I go to the Stampeders every year. I’m not on the team until I learn the playbook. I tell them “You can’t stop bullying unless you know the rules. I’m giving you the playbook. I’m your coach.”
I describe what bullying is and how they can identify it. A lot of times kids think getting into an argument is bullying. No, bullying is more of a repetitive thing. It’s more of a negative intent. Sometimes it’s premeditated and sometimes its automatic.
You’ve really got to relate it to the kids, so I use the coolest stories, like Spiderman. He sees a bank robber come by on a day he has his power and he’s all upset he didn’t do anything when that bank robber runs by and kills his uncle. I say with great power comes great responsibility and the kids kind of get it.
It’s generally really well received. I’m very animated because you have to be in order to maintain the kids’ attention for more than 10 minutes. Especially when you’ve got a room with kindergarteners and sixth graders and you’re trying to relay a message to two different brains. I’m running, I’m jumping, and I’m sweating by the time I’m done. I usually get sick because I leave one school to anther soaking wet. But it’s worth it. It’s probably one of the most fulfilling things I’ve done in an off-season in 12 years of football.
By the end of May, I hit 40 schools and that’s over a couple hundred hours, if not more, worth of work. Some schools, I’ll present two or three times in a morning and some days, I’m booked for two schools.
I say this all the time — the CFL is not going to make me rich. The only thing it’s going to do is enable me to play the sport I love for a living, but I also realize that every time I throw that jersey on and represent the team, it’s like Superman pulling off his shirt and putting on the big S and being able to affect change. And that’s what I hope to do as long as I get the opportunity.
Hopefully, we can pick it up and have more guys going out. I can teach a couple of guys this is the program and they can deliver it however they want, but these are the key messages and let’s get these kids realizing we don’t pick on kids and we don’t make people feel terrible. We’re all teammates. We don’t have to be best friends, but we’re teammates. And I think if we do that, we’ll save a couple of kids.
Randy Chevrier, #56
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