While visiting the school, it happened to be lunchtime to which the school suggested Tad go and speak with one of the clubs that was meeting. Tad was brought to a classroom of 11 students and two adults who were sitting eating their lunch and having quiet conversation. Naïvely Tad believed he could sit in on a classroom in full uniform and just listen when in fact, the reality was the students wanted to know why a police officer was sitting in their class. When asked the question of what was the purpose of the visit, Tad would unofficially do what would eventually become the foundation of a presentation in which he shared some of his darkest moments growing up along with abuse and neglect; things he had never shared with anyone before.

The students were in awe and began to ask deep questions such as ‘how are you so lucky to have made it’ or ‘how did you survive after being in such darkness’, it’s at that point Tad began to realize these kids were looking up to him, but not to him as Tad, they were looking up to him because students were looking for adults to look up to.

At the end of the lunch, one of the adult supervisors in the class came up to Tad and said she had never seen a response from the students like that and suggested Tad return at another time to perhaps speak with one of their classes to which Tad agreed.

Well, that classroom chat turned into another one which then turned into a school-wide presentation, to then be requested by multiple schools in the district, then to Provincially and all across the Country. It was evident that within twelve months of sharing his story for the first time to that lunch group, his presentation had evolved into one of the most sought after heart-wrenching presentations Canada has seen. This is backed up with the fact that since 2012, Tad has presented his ‘lived experience’ presentation to over 2 million students around the world with presentations being requested daily.

As the presentation requests were beginning to grow, so was the desire of the community to want to donate to help our cause so in 2012 Bullying Ends Here became official and was registered as a Canadian charity and, since our inception, we have raised close to $1 million which has all gone directly to those who need it most.

The fact that bullying is not limited to schools or our youth, we recognized that we wanted to expand our programming to include experts in the field of social media, which would encompass cyber bullying of all ages along with Workplace Bullying so we were proud to bring experts in their own fields, Darren Lauer and Linda Crockett to join our team.

We also decided that we wanted to make sure that people could reach us on multiple platforms which included social media, email, website, our app and through school counsellors.

Bullying Ends Here has one simple goal, and that is to help just one person who may be listening to one of our presentations and is currently struggling in silence believing there is no hope or answers to the situation they find themselves in currently. This is why we have partnered with agencies across the country from policing to counselling to telephone conversations and victim services to make sure that no one is left behind.

Just our roots show that a single person truly can start a positive revolution by sharing their own story, their own pain, their own feelings, their own struggles, but then also their perseverance. We need to do so much more than to tell a young person ‘it will get better’ by doing what we can today to help make things better. By including experts in all fields, we can provide the resources to have our kiddos know that no matter how dark today might feel, it’s very possible that tomorrow will be so much better with a little work and positive thinking.

Just when we think we have hit our peak, we find another way to support others. We can honestly say that we have no idea what the future holds but the opportunities are endless because sadly our society still has bullies, who are oftentimes people in pain, struggling with addictions, mental illness and dozens of other reasons as to why they would want to cause pain to another human being. We must find ways to continue to stay current in our knowledge and in our resources along with our support programs, all while keeping our programming as simple as possible.

We are always looking for similar minds who want to financially support our program to ensure it continues for years to come whether that be a one-time donation, a monthly donation, a sponsorship, or an honorarium we would be honoured if you selected us to give those treasure dollars.

Together, we will not only change lives, but SAVE them.