Thank You

Ever have one of those moments in your life where you are trying to find the words to perfectly convey how you are feeling in the moment...but you simply cannot find anything adequate to say?  Right now I am living that very moment.

So I will set aside my need to find the perfect words, and fall back on my upbringing.  As a child my parents taught me the value of being polite.  Something I try to instill in my own children.  I believe there is great value and power in words like "please" or "thank you".  Whether you are asking for a second piece of pie after dinner (don't worry, your secret is safe with me), or asking folks across the globe to support your anti-bullying run by downloading a bib from a website and running a 5K...when you toss in the word "please", people are more apt to respond favorably.

I said please and you responded favorably.  Now I say thank you.  Thank you for taking time out of your Saturday morning on October 18th to join with us here on our campus.  Thank you for every step you ran and/or walked.  Thank you for participating.  Thank you for understanding that it was not a race.  Thank you for making the Buddy Up Against Bullying 5K your first 5K.  Thank you for cheering for each other.  Thank you for running with your child.  Thank you for running with your parents.  Thank you for downloading the free bib.  Thank you for wearing our bib while you ran in a totally different race somewhere else in the world.  Thank you for the encouraging emails.  Thank you for telling a friend.  Thank you for sponsoring us.  Thank you for the gift cards.  Thank you for the products.  Thank you for asking, "When is the next one?"  Thank you...thank you...thank you.

Most importantly, thank you for standing up against bullying.  Thank you for shining a light on the epidemic that is bullying in our schools.  On Saturday morning, I shared with the crowd a statistic that each and every day across the United States, 160,000 students skip school out of fear of being bullied.  My school district (Wake Count Public Schools) is the largest in North Carolina at approximately 157,000 students.  So imagine for a moment every school in my district sitting completely empty every single day because students were afraid.  Thank you for your support.

We are already looking at dates for our next Buddy Up Against Bullying 5K.  Will you join us?  Please?

BUAB