When St. Rose Elementary School asked its students to aid its Live Bully Free Program, fourth-grader Jason Martin volunteered for a project that started a lovable flash mob.It’s a wristband that says “#LiveBullyFree.”
The 9-year-old loves wearing the bands so he approached his mother, Brandie Ray, about the idea.
“Momma, I think it’d be cool to do that,” she said he told her.
Ray agreed.
“I think it’s amazing,” she said. “I think it’s great that he’s so young and he’s touching people. I love his idea.”
Martin decided to put the slogan on black bands with the slogan in white. He bought 150 of them for his fellow fourth-graders and then everyone at the school wanted a band, too. Martin announced he wanted to give them one, too, and that’s another 650 bands.
With this total, the order was $200, but Martin insisted on paying for them.
The youngster had $120 in his “A” fund (his parents give him $20 per grade A per subject), said his mother, Brandie Ray of St. Rose. He went to his grandfather and asked for work to pay the difference, who tells him to wash his truck, two trailers and cleanout his garage long left in a mess, she added.
Martin agreed to it all until his grandfather suddenly announced, “I’m joking, dude, here’s the money.”
The order was made.
When they arrived, Martin and his mother sorted them out by grade and he delivered them at the school. Everyone got a band including the cafeteria staff. Each box delivered had a sticker on it saying, “Wear this wristband as a reminder to live Bully Free and be kinder.” Mother and son came up with the idea and saying.
Ray said Martin’s committed was deepened
he showed him an article about Jackson Grubb in West Virginia, a student the same age as Martin, whose parents say it was likely bullying that drove their child to suicide. Martin told her he wanted to contact the boy’s family to send them wristbands “to show them there are people for them and that he’s trying to put a stop to the bullying,” Ray said.
They haven’t connected yet, but she said a television station is trying to bring Martin and his parents together.
More requests for bands have come from friends, which Martin sent to them free.
Others have since flooded them with requests to buy them – a lot of people – for multiple colors, Ray said. Martin even wants to make a black band with blue writing for police, although she’s asked him to slow down a bit on new additions. Even so, he’s decided to sell them with initial proceeds going to the family who lost their son and then to an anti-bullying group.
Martin has got a business on his hands, although Ray said he understands it’s nonprofit. They set up a Facebook page to provide them and take donations at www.facebook.com/jasonmartinlivebullyfree.
The American Legion Auxiliary also has told Ray they’re giving Martin a hero award for his efforts, but his mother said her son has always been a giver. She recalled a time when he learned of a village in Honduras where children didn’t have toys so went to his room and packaged nearly all his own and sent them there. Ray said they got photographs showing the children playing with them.
Ray added, “He’s always had a big heart.”
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