Year 11 student and social justice leader Charlotte Stevens, Year 9 student Kate Edmundes and staff member Kate Berry.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
Notre Dame Year 9 student Kate Edmundes left the house wearing blue socks knowing that when she arrived at school, she’d get detention for being out of uniform.
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But the cause meant more than that.
“It’s more a look for the awareness. It’s one lunchtime I’ll miss out on,” Kate said.
Do it for Dolly Day is a national day of action calling on Australians to ‘Go Blue to End Bullying,’ after Dolly Everett tragically took her own life in 2018 due to constant bullying and cyberbullying.
On Friday, May 8 Notre Dame students donned blue ribbons as a tribute to Dolly’s legacy.
Students at the Emmaus Campus began the day creating a kindness wall — filled with sympathetic messages written on blue butterflies, followed by baking 350 blue iced cupcakes.
Year 9 students (back) Addison Sabri, Eloise Hudgson, Zoe Payne-Croston, (front) Fenn Burgess, Evie Costello and Lucinda Threlfall iced hundreds of cupcakes to support the cause.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
Year 9 teacher Kate Berry said the kindness walls displayed in each building were to encourage awareness across an environment that saw the effects of bullying far too often.
“I love the conversations that come from today,” Ms Berry said.
“It’s about raising awareness. We work in a high school with lots of kids, lots of bullying and we see that impact every single day, which is awful.”
In Australia, 30 to 40 per cent of high-school students experience bullying on a regular basis, whether face-to-face or online.
At a time when people experience this, one student, social justice leader Charlotte Stevens, has been the driving force behind the school’s change and participation in Do it for Dolly Day.
“I find it very comforting to know that we can all come together with that common understanding that people are struggling and we all do care for each other,” Charlotte said.
“It’s really important that we all check up on each other.”
Year 9 students Deng Agog, Felicity Crifo, Ivy Stevens, Zach Hardisty in front of the kindness wall they created in their first class of the day.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
The Emmaus campus has been participating in this day for the past five years to acknowledge a heartbreaking experience that far too many young people endure.
But this year, Charlotte was able to bring the cause to the Knight St campus with school leadership expecting it to stay for years to come.
“It’s very admirable that one student got this happening,” Kate Berry said.
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