PORTLAND Secondary College (PSC) held a Student Services Showcase last Friday on Do It For Dolly Day, engaging students on the topic of mental health.

A focal point of the day was the Student Voice and Agency Committee’s ‘Day for Dolly’, in tribute to Amy ‘Dolly’ Everett, who took her life at the age of 14 in January 2018 after facing persistent bullying.

This young country girl’s family vowed to keep her memory alive by establishing anti-bullying organisation Dolly’s Dream and Friday May 10 marked the sixth anniversary of Do it For Dolly Day – a national day to unite against bullying and promote kindness in the community. 

Dolly’s mum, Kate Everett, said the message this year was to “break the silence around bullying.”

“The message is that even if your voice shakes, it’s important to speak up and seek help, to help break the silence,” she said.

It comes after recent studies found one in four Australian school students aged four to nine experienced bullying, with one in seven not seeking help, equating to more than 340,000 young people who suffer in silence.

To mark Day for Dolly, PSC had a focus on bullying across the whole week, spreading the message that ‘even if your voice shakes, it’s important to speak up and seek help, to help break the silence.’

Information stalls were set up on the school grounds and run by the Doctors in Secondary Schools Program, the DARE Program, Headspace, the SHAKA Project, School Nurse on the issue of Consent and the Mental Health Practitioners.

All provided a wide range of resources and information for students.

Year 7 and 8 Students created a number of activities for all students to complete around bullying awareness, as well as hosted a casual day where all students and staff were encouraged to wear blue, and senior students ran a fund-raising barbecue.

The canteen sold blue cupcakes and staff members purchased cakes from one of the office ladies who donated the funds to the cause.

One highlight was when a school visitor, on hearing about the cause, donated $100 to the fundraiser.

Over $1000 was raised on the day.

The Student Voice and Agency Committee collected a great deal of information about bullying and will now work on analysing that information to forward plan further events and awareness campaigns.

• If experiencing feelings of distress, Lifeline is available 24 hours and there to assist through a phone call: 13 11 14