Keep Caring this Summer and Win Prizes!

This year B.I.O.N.I.C. Teams all over the world have been reaching out and making a difference for their peers, school staff, families, and communities. Each summer families need to find activities for their kids, and this summer we want to encourage families big and small to keep the caring going that the students experienced this year! As the students take part in the B.I.O.N.I.C. Team outreaches and activities during the school year, they learn valuable life skills and leadership skills that often the parents haven’t seen in their students before. A family that reaches out together develops special bonds and memorable bonding experiences. So we are planning several initiatives to help you make a difference this summer as a family. Next week we will post more information but we wanted to give you a glimpse of what’s coming.

• Weekly Family Community Service Outreaches (picture is students of Pomona High School with residents from Sunrise Senior Living Center)
  During the school year, B.I.O.N.I.C. Teams reach out to those in their communities who are going through tough times. So we will give you ideas of how you can reach out to:
  – Senior citizens
  – Homeless
  – Neighbors
  – Veterans
  – Service workers
  – First responders
  – Make your community more beautiful
  – Pick up trash
  – Collect school supplies
  We will provide some details, but will leave the options open to your family to adjust as you want to for your outreaches. Then at the end of each week, you will post a picture on our BIONIC Team Facebook page (@bionicteamorg) of what your family did and we will have a drawing of a special prize each week for a family that did an outreach. The outreaches will start the first week in June, and we will post the details in a blog post on May 24th.
• #viralcaring Social Media Campaign
  Make a positive difference in June and July by sharing positive social media posts each day to encourage friends, family members, and the world while giving students and adults alike something to look forward to by gaining points for prizes. Let’s see if you’re up to the challenge.  We will post a positive saying each day, and by signing up you will receive a unique code for you that you will include when you share the post on your social media. Look for details coming in a blog post on May 24th.                                                                                                                                                                                               
• Parent S.T.O.P. Bullying Online Course
  Often students are bullied at school and parents are the last ones to know. As we have been talking with school counselors and other staff over the past couple of months as schools are opening up, we have heard that kids have regressed because of a lack of interaction with peers over the last nine months. So their social skills have declined, and as a result, bullying has increased with kids making fun of peers. We are even concerned about the possibility of an increase in school shootings. We want to help parents know how to:
              – Support your child by creating awareness around what bullying is and what to do if they see it
              – Take action if your student is bullied to recover your child’s emotional well-being quickly
              – Obtain strategies to prevent your student from being bullied
              – Prevent future bullying in your community by empowering your circle, neighborhood, school, church, and realm of influence
  Keep an eye out for our blog on May 24th, for more details.