Celebrating the No Place for Hate parade
Students demand a hate free campus
NUMBER ONE FAN: Junior Hailey Atwood cheers on her friends in the Multicultural Awareness club performing in the pit after the parade. In preparation for the parade Atwood and her basketball team made multiple banners and posters to be carried in the parade. “At Bowie everyone is a fam- ily,” Atwood said. “No matter what race, religion or sexuality, we can all come together and stand up for what we believe in and have fun doing it.”
April 7, 2018
Once a year, students and faculty come together to speak out about the issue of bullying and work to unify all students. With the help of students and administrators, the No Place for Hate parade has been able to grow and become an anticipated event by hundreds of students the past three years.
Student Leadership worked to organize the parade and made multiple posters, t-shirts, and pins to advertise the event.
“Our student leadership class started planning for the parade at the beginning of the spring semester,” junior Sophie Wolfe said. “We started inviting different clubs to participate and we had the social studies classes make posters to hang around the school and to showcase in the parade.”
PREACHING KINDNESS: Throwing out candy to students, senior Camille Seminet and junior Peyton Ludemann ride in the student leadership oat. Student leadership started preparing for the parade at the beginning of the spring semester. “Well we’d been preparing for the parade for
a while and just tried to get as many people involved as possible, and I think that’s a big part of what made it so big and fun this year,” Seminet said.
This year after the parade the Multicultural Awareness club held a performance in the pit, which showcased the girls in the organization, the “Diamonds and Pearls”, doing a dance routine to entertain the students. The routine consisted of dance moves and songs that empowered the students and engaged the crowd.
“We wanted to dance to songs that were popular but also focused on beauty, so that’s why we used “Pretty Girl Walk” and “Flawless”,” junior Kennedy Hartman said. “It’s important that we have this parade because we never know what someone is going through mentally and physically.”
Kacy Benson has done many presentations for students here at Bowie; teaching students life lessons and motivating them. Benson and his wife student leadership teacher and girls basketball coach Vickie Benson put in large amounts of work to create the parade and increase participation.
“I help the Student Leaders and other organizations that are involved remember why we are doing this. It is a really big task
to pull the parade off,” Kacy said. “There are times students want to quit or don’t want to work on the project. That is where I feel like I can come in and bring them back to the purpose.”
Mentors to some and inspirations to others, Kacy and Vickie work to motivate students to carry the message of the No Place for Hate parade with them everyday and hope to grow the parade in future years.
“Coach Benson and I want to see more student participation with more clubs and organizations making a stand and participating in the march,” Kacy said. ”In the future, it would be great to involve 8th grade leadership groups from our middle schools to join and see that Bowie is a safe and great place to be.”
YOU SCREAM, I SCREAM, WE ALL SCREAM FOR A NO HATE CAMPUS: Senior Madison Horner cheers at the crowd of students on the Student Council oat during the pa- rade. Horner has been involved with the parade all three years. “With such a diverse community of students it is important to continue this tradition to celebrate our differences,” Horner said.
DO YOUR HAPPY DANCE: Senior Jonah Combs freestyles and entertains the crowd in the pit after the No Place for Hate parade. Combs has been dancing since he was a little kid but recently became public with it because of the parade. “My favorite part about the parade is that everyone seems to be very happy and the overall atmosphere of the parade is really nice,” Combs said.
