Can knitting really stop children from getting bullied? 

Maybe not, but thanks to the handiwork of many local knitters, children at the Hampden Meadows School YMCA After-school enrichment program have a new strategy to combat bullying, and a way to keep warm this winter.

People involved in the program make blue hats for students to wear to bring awareness of the negative impacts of bullying. When students wear the hand-made blue hats they are letting others know that they are kind and willing to be a friend to others.  

More than 150 blue hats were made by members of the Bayside Family YMCA, the Barrington Senior Center and others in our community.  

On Wednesday, Nov. 20, the hats were delivered to the students in the Hampden Meadows YMCA After-school enrichment program. Every child chose two hats — one for them to wear and another for a friend.  

When asked, every one of the students said that they knew someone in their class who had been bullied. The students came up with many ways to combat bullying including: offering to sit with someone at lunch, smiling in the hallway, telling an adult and just being kind.  

The #HatNotHate program taking place at the Hampden Meadows School YMCA After-school enrichment program is a collaboration between Lion Brand Yarn and STOMP Out Bullying, the leading national anti-bullying and cyberbullying organization for kids and teens in the U.S. 

Since launching in 2005, STOMP Out Bullying has worked to reduce and prevent bullying, cyberbullying, and other digital abuse, educates against homophobia, LGBTQ discrimination, racism and hatred, and deters violence in schools, online, and in communities across the country.