Cold Spring group organizes letters of support

Unify Against Bullying, based in Massachusetts, on May 1 awarded its first out-of-state grant to See the Wish, a Cold Spring organization founded in 2009 by author Jennifer Young and composer January Akselrad.

The $1,000 grant will help pay for postage and promotion of its Be-A-Friend Project, in which students write encouraging letters to victims of bullying. The letters are packaged by See the Wish and delivered as a large package of support.

The project began with a delivery of 75 letters to a sixth-grade boy in Pennsylvania and has since delivered nearly 5,000 letters. Most recently, it sent 393 letters to a seventh-grader in Amarillo, Texas, whose bullying was so severe the abuse was featured on the local news. Students from Jennifer Windels’ fourth-grade class at Haldane Elementary contributed letters.

To participate, visit beafriendproject.org or email [email protected].

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