Councillor deviates from dress code to raise awareness

VERNON – Pink Shirt Day came early to Vernon City Hall.

Coun. Bob Spiers brought some colour to council chambers today with a bubblegum pink anti-bullying T-shirt. 

“It’s a great program and it should be supported,” Spiers says of the celebration coming up this Wednesday.

Pink Shirt Day was born in 2007 when a pair of Nova Scotia high school students organized a protest to wear pink in sympathy with a grade 9 boy who was being bullied.

“I’d like to remind and encourage everyone else to go out and purchase a T-shirt,” Spiers says.

He’s got a collection of shirts from each anti-bulling day, and enjoys wearing them throughout the year from council meetings to dog walks.

“The shirts come in handy,” he says.

Vernon council agreed he was the best dressed politician at today’s meeting.

The shirts are available at London Drugs and the Boys and Girls Club.

To contact the reporter for this story, email Charlotte Helston at chelsotn@infotelnews.ca, call (250)309-5230 or tweet @charhelston.