The video has caught the attention of Cher, blogger Perez Hilton, and even Lady Gaga, but the three creators of the ‘Paws Up Forever Project’ just wanted to bring some awareness to the fate of one young man who took his life due to unrelenting bullying.
Lower Mainland residents Sara Nazeman, Jason Bring, and Ines Andersen-Mitchell wanted to highlight Jamey Rodemeyer’s story, who was only 14-years-old when he committed suicide. People had posted messages online that he should commit suicide and everyone would be happier if he killed himself. Sadly he was found dead on September 18. Last May he had even tried to help others by taking part in the anti-bullying project ‘It Gets Better.’
The three local youth did not know Rodemeyer, but Nazeman had ‘met’ him through the blogging website Tumblr.
“After he had died we both knew that we wanted to do something to kind of draw awareness to bullying and help fight against bullying,” said fellow creator Bring.
At first, Bring and Nazeman, along with Andersen-Mitchell, wanted to go around to the different high schools and talk to students, but garnered so much support online they decided to make a video to help fight bullying everywhere.
With the help of 150 people around the world, the three friends put the word out for help to create a video message, and then edited together clips. They not only wanted to get the message out that it does get better, but also that every person is loved and beautiful, no matter what others may say. They had so many submissions, they couldn’t even fit them all in.
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The video was posted September 22, and has been seen almost 49,000 times so far.
“Jamey was a really big fan of Lady Gaga,” said Bring. “Basically she was his role model, his inspiration, so we decided to dedicate it to him and to Lady Gaga.”
Gaga calls her fans “little monsters” and that is where the idea behind Paws Up Forever comes from. The music mogul now wants to make a law for Rodemeyer against bullying, and has met with President Obama to set the wheels in motion.
The online wheels are already turning.
“We’ve gotten emails from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, literally all over the world,” said Nazeman.
“The support and how people have been telling us that they were going to commit suicide, then they saw our video and that changed their mind, that’s exactly what we were trying to do,” she added.
The local creators want this video to reach out to those who may be bullying others as well. “They’ll see how it affects people, and how it doesn’t matter where you’re from or who you are, people can come together for the same cause all over the world and it affects everyone from every part of the world,” said Nazeman.
Aside from messages of hope and support, the trio has also had a Facebook and Twitter page set up for them, and someone even purchased the domain name www.pawsupforeverproject.com.
“People have been sending us emails that they want to make clothes for us, and start up fundraisers, and make stickers for us,” Nazeman added.
The response has been overwhelming so far, but this is only the beginning.
The three innovators want to make more videos, and reach out to more people. Perez Hilton wrote that the video brought tears to his eyes and called it “incredibly, truly powerful”.
“We want people that are bullying or people that are bullied to just understand what the consequences can be from bullying,” said Bring. “We want people that, we’ve had people comment that they were going to commit suicide until they saw our video, and we want people to understand that if you do commit suicide you’re going to be missed and a lot of people do care about you.”
“We want people to basically get the message that bullying has to stop. It really is a hate crime if you think about it,” he added.
Paws Up Forever Project on Tumblr
Paws Up Forever Project on Facebook
Watch the video below:
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