When a high school student learned that a little boy was getting bullied at his school in, he had flashbacks to his childhood.
Chris Kuykendall is a senior and football star at Hobbs High School in New Mexico. While he may be popular now, he experienced his share of bullying when he was younger, which is something no child should ever have to go through.
When Chris remembered the pain and suffering he felt as a victim of bullying, he knew he wanted to make a difference in Ryan’s life. “It just hit home. I remembered how I felt when I was getting bullied. It just fired me up. I wanted to change that right then and there. I didn’t want him to go another day, wake up another day, feeling like he didn’t need to go to school,” Chris told Meredith Vieira.
So, Chris invited Ryan to have lunch with him, so that everyone could see he was friends with the cool, older kids. It also happened to be an indirect message to Ryan’s bullies to back off.
It was no surprise that after that day Ryan’s bully wasn’t tormenting him anymore. And seeing how effective Chris’s efforts were, he, along with friend and fellow athlete Brevin Young, started a program at their school to help other children who were victims of bullying.
Called the Eagle Buddies program, the group pairs older athletes with bullied kids to help give them a boost of confidence and to have someone besides their family that they can talk to. Meredith Vieira recognized the boys’ incredible efforts and had all three of them on her show to talk about Eagle Buddies. She even surprises them with a really generous gift at the end!
Watch this heartwarming video below and please SHARE it with your friends and family on Facebook!
[Featured Image Credit: YouTube- The Meredith Vieira Show]
Football Players Stand Up For 5th Grader Being Bullied At School is an article from: LifeDaily