Four hundred community members, educators, students and beloved Colorado team mascots joined together on April 13^th at Mile High Stadium to Team Up Against Bullying while celebrating 54 Colorado schools that earned their 2017-2018 No Place for Hate® designation. Four of those schools – Cherry Creek High School, Durango High School, Rangeview High School (Aurora) and Southern Hills Middle School (Boulder Valley) – received special banners acknowledging their participation for all ten years of the No Place for Hate Initiative in Colorado. In honor of all of the participating schools, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper officially declared April 13, 2018 as “No Place for Hate Day.”

The interactive and exciting program featured appearances by several Colorado team mascots including Miles from the Denver Broncos, Dinger from the Colorado Rockies, Bernie from the Colorado Avalanche, Franz the Fox from the Colorado Rapids and CAM Spirit from Colorado State University. The mascots helped the crowd recite the No Place for Hate five steps that a school must complete to become designated as “No Place for Hate.” The mascots also engaged with participants following the program.

ADL honored this year’s eleven Student Art Contest winners who created unique and inspirational pieces embodying the theme:  “What Does It Look Like When…” with various options, such as “Diversity is a Strength” and “We Find Common Ground,” for students to use as prompts to create their artwork.  All of the winning submissions may be viewed online on ADL’s regional website.

Three schools – Arrowhead Elementary, Isaac Newton Middle School and Boulder High School –were honored with the 2017-2018 No Place for Hate Excellence Awards for going above and beyond their No Place for Hate requirements to create specific activities which significantly impacted their school communities.

The keynote address was presented by Rosalind Wiseman, internationally renowned educator, thought leader, author, and media spokesperson on bullying, ethical leadership, the use of social media, and media literacy. Rosalind is the founder of Cultures of Dignity and is the author of the flexible, dynamic curriculum Owning Up: Empowering Adolescents to Confront Social Cruelty, Bullying, and Injustice. She is also the author of Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, and the New Realities of Girl World, the groundbreaking, best-selling book that was the basis for the movie and Broadway show “Mean Girls”.

The morning’s celebration concluded with a rousing unfurling of all the schools’ banners.  Check out photos below, and visit the No Place for Hate website for more information about the program.

Thanks to Karen Bigelow and Susie Moss for co-chairing the event and to all the members of the breakfast committee for their hard work.

ADL thanks these generous sponsors for making the celebration possible:

• Platinum Banner Sponsor: The Jay and Rose Phillips Family Foundation of Colorado
• Silver Banner Sponsor: The Gerald & Roberta Quiat Family Foundation
• Changemakers:
  • Hank & Cheryl Saipe
  • The Melvin & Elaine Wolf Foundation
• Advocates:
  • Peggy Goldman
  • The Gardner Sullivan Group – Merrill Lynch Private Banking & Investment Group
  • Gary Kleiman & Elisa Moran
  • Ibex Investors
  • Zeff Kesher Foundation
• Champions:
  • AMG National Trust Bank
  • Cravitz Family Foundation
  • MorEvents
  • Western Educational Equity Assistance Center
• Supporters:
  • ARC Thrift Stores
  • Colorado Computer Care
  • Denver Relief Consulting
  • Hill Family Foundation
  • JEWISHcolorado
  • The Millstone Evans Group of Raymond James
  • Jared Polis Foundation
  • Jaya Raju
  • Koenig, Oelsner, Taylor, Schoenfeld & Gaddis
  • Debra & Steven Weinstein
  • WideFoc.us Social Media

Check out our event photos!