Written by Hayley Apted and Brady Lorenz, Student Journalists
On February 26th, students at St. Joseph’s High School in Barrie came together in faith and love to celebrate both Ash Wednesday and Pink Shirt day.
Pink Shirt day is an international day of recognition to commemorate victims of bullying. The tradition began in 2007 in Canada when two students stood up for a fellow classmate who was harassed for wearing a pink shirt to school. Now, Pink Shirt day is held at schools around the world. At St. Joseph's, students are happy to support this important cause and wear their pink shirts with the school uniform pants, united in their recognition of the pink shirt as an important symbol of the fight to end bullying.
The school’s Ash Wednesday liturgy - in which Catholics commit to better themselves through Lenten promises; the pillars of which are resolutions to fast, give, and pray - was a sea of pink this year, as both events fell on the same day. The goal of the Lenten season is to promote almsgiving, which is the call to meet the needs of other people through donating, volunteering, or advocacy. To recognize and work to end bullying ties in perfectly with the meaning of Lent, and to have these two celebrations on the same day was a fateful and poignant coincidence.