The largest-ever anti-bullying school assembly will be streamed live from right here in Rock Island today.
International non-profit organization “Fearlessly Girl” will host the event at Augustana College. The assembly is part of a three-day summit taking place in the Quad Cities today through Saturday.
Madison Keys, a Quad Cities native and top professional tennis player, is hosting the event with Fearlessly Girl founder Kate Whitfield. The anti-bullying summit was live-streamed from Augustana College on Friday from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. More than 7,000 kids across 22 different states were expected to tune in. You can watch a replay right here:
Whitfield travels around the world hosting summits where young girls get a chance to address the issues they’re facing. Now 31 years old, she told Local 4 News when she came up with the idea she just wanted to find a way for girls to work together.
“I honestly felt like coming into a school and talking for an hour seemed like a band aid for a bullet wound when it comes to these issues,” Whitfield said. “It just felt like you can kind of get the girls excited and you can have a great hour but I wanted to do something that was more long lasting. And so in the beginning I started going in for an hour and I remember being completely overwhelmed with all of the things these girls were dealing with and I thought, ‘Okay, we need a program that covers all the bases.'”