[Tisha Marina and World Hoop Day want everyone in life to feel safe and loved and they’re spinning things up to make it happen.]

By Tisha Marina

What we model as a hoop community is a powerful statement. We can gather at a hoop jam, all ages, sizes and colors and get along. We can travel the world “couch surfing” with hoopers. Having the hoop in common is simply enough to love each other from the start. We model what is possible for others in a classroom and on the playground.

And yet, suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people in the United States. Every day in America, 160,000 students stay home because they are too scared to got to school. In Mexico City in 2010, 109 kids took their lives to stop the bullying. While the countries and numbers go on and on, these statistics are just representations on how bullying is a world-wide epidemic. Bullying is not just a school and family problem, it is a community problem. That is why I’m presenting a call for all my fellow global citizens in the hooping community to put a stop to bullying within our community and throughout the world. As a professional hoop dancer, as well as a Bully Prevention Specialist and youth advocate, I invite you to join me and World Hoop Day in educating and raising awareness for World Hoop Day 2012. I would like to invite you to join us in a call to action to prevent and end bullying once and for all. Read the rest of this entry →