By Neil Corbett – Maple Ridge News
“Honk if you love someone.”
If you saw a student on the side of the road holding that sign, would you?
More importantly, would it make you smile?
“Today is awesome,” or “Don’t be so hard on yourself” – would those messages, on a placard, brighten your day, just a little bit, for a little while?
Those in the leadership class at Thomas Haney secondary think so and have embarked on the Make B.C. Smile campaign.
Drivers may have noticed students at Pitt Meadows elementary out displaying their own brands of positive messages along Harris Road on Thursday afternoon, as they have joined the effort.
“I really do think it works. Even tiny positive messages can brighten my day,” said Courtney Connor, a Grade 10 student at Samuel Robertson Technical.
She is part of the District Student Advisory Council (DSAC) that has also taken up Make B.C. Smile.
“The more we get out there, the better community we can build,” said Connor. “We want to make B.C. feel smaller – more like a community.”
The organizers have borrowed generously from a student initiative from Washington called “Make D.C. Smile.”
Massoud Adibpour first created the signs and eventually a Youtube video titled, “Honk If You Love Someone. ”
He’s gained some measure of celebrity. The Washington Post called him the “Prince of Positivity,” and “a Bobby McFerrin song come to life.”
Local students wanted to tap into that, and so they have brought Adibpour to Maple Ridge, to be the main speaker for the annual DSAC leadership conference today at the Greg Moore Youth Centre. He’ll tell 150 elementary students, future leaders in local schools, about what he started, and how significant it has become.
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