Kenowa Hills High School students will be the faces of a worldwide anti-bullying campaign, thanks to their creative collaboration with martial-arts champion and motivational speaker Mariah Moore. The former Lowell High School student is using posters and stories of the Kenowa anti-bullying group Knights Lights as part of her Enough is Enough campaign.
Moore recently paid a surprise visit to the school to present posters of the students to be used in the campaign. They were created by more than 30 students and shot by photographer Dave Burgess, along with videos and story lines, when Moore previously came to the school in February. Moore gave the school more than 15 banners featuring student-designed concepts and images, and which were donated by Fastsigns.com.
Of the hundreds of schools she has visited worldwide, Knights Lights is “among the best if not the best” anti-bullying programs she’s seen, Moore said in a prepared statement, adding that guidance counselor Jeff Poelstra “does an amazing job” with students.
“I absolutely knew that the Kenowa Hills Knights Lights were the perfect fit and my first choice for this project when I heard Mr. Poelstra say to the group, ‘Please check the bathrooms and the library during lunch to see if anyone is alone or can use a friend,’” she said. “My heart dropped because I was that girl. I was the girl that ate my lunch alone in the bathroom.”
Moore “planted seeds of courage and fortitude” in students through the four-month project, and brought the club closer together, Poelstra said.
“We were excited at the opportunity to join with Mariah to empower our students to extend our club’s message to the world, through using the face of our school and our great students in her campaign,” he said. “Mariah gave the students a voice, an image of exceptionalism, that they have come to admire not only in Mariah, but in themselves, and in our club.”
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