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Community Corner

NOVA 'NO BULLying Run' raises $30,000

Network of Victim Assistance’s 2nd Annual 5-mile NO BULLying Run and 1-mile Fun Run with a strong family focus, raised $30,000 for NOVA’s award-winning prevention education initiatives.

The event, sponsored by First Federal of Bucks County and held June 14 at Doylestown Township’s Central Park, drew more than 290 runners – 184 for the 5-mile race and 107 who participated in the 1-mile fun run – and more than 400 people overall.

Bob Polturak of Perkasie was First Overall in the 5-mile run, coming in at 29:00. A time of 31:03 gave Tracey Sawyer of Warrington First Female Overall in the NO BULLying Run. Tracey has placed First Female Overall in both years of the run.

As part of the “NO BULLying” emphasis of the event, NOVA educators led interactive activities focused on building awareness of the problem of bullying and empowering kids to stand up against it, including the creation of a Commitment Wall. Other family-friendly activities:
•    Ellen Mager from Booktenders Children’s Bookstore read stories about friendship, respect and the problem of bullying.
•    East West Karate and Action Karate led martial arts demonstrations.
•    Spectral Locomotive entertained the crowd with live music.
•    A moon bounce, face painting and arts and crafts provided activity for children of all ages.

NOVA’s Prevention Education initiatives deliver school-age programs on bullying prevention and intervention in local schools. For more than two decades, NOVA has focused a large part of its violence prevention education, workshops, assertiveness training, counseling, advocacy, referrals and support toward putting a halt to bullying and helping bullying victims heal.

“In order to end bullying, we believe an entire community must work together to develop a solution,” says Mandy Mundy, director of education and training at NOVA. “By uniting, engaging and educating teachers, parents, students and professionals in the community to prevent bullying, we are making an impact.”

The National Education Association reports that about 160,000 children miss school every day because they are afraid of being bullied, 71 percent of students report incidents of bullying as a problem at their school, and 43 percent of youth report that they have experienced some form of cyber bullying in the last year.

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