A colourful new bench featuring a big red heart now graces the lobby of Community Centre 55 (CC55).
The friendship bench, as it’s called, was unveiled Wednesday, Nov. 19.
Kill It With Kindness (KIWK), a charitable organization that raises funds and awareness about bullying, donated the bench to CC55 in honour of volunteer Gene Domagala.
"Gene is a wonderful volunteer in the neighbourhood so we thought this was a wonderful opportunity to honour him," Debbie Visconti, the local community centre’s executive director, said during the unveiling event.
Kill It With Kindness is working to install friendship benches, which are designed to act as a tool for bullying and represent a safe zone for children and teens who don’t necessarily have the voice to speak up about someone bullying them, in all schools and community centres across Canada.
So far, KIWK has installed 15 of the recycled plastic, weather-proof benches, including one at the nearby Beaches Recreation Centre.
The federally incorporated, grassroots organization, whose mission is to stop bullying on all levels in all communities with advocacy, conflict resolution and education, is aiming to install six more benches by the end of this year.
Visit www.killitwithkindness.org for more information.
-Joanna Lavoie