Tweens Think Twice

Story by Kiani Bell, reporter, FNN Blow Pierce Bureau 
Photo by Michael Walton http://www.michaelwaltonfoundation.org

On Friday, September 26, 2014, the Blow Pierce Junior Academy had a couple of guests who made something out of their lives. One of our guests, Michael Walton was a young runner when he created a foundation to help others. His foundation is called The Michael Walton Foundation. His purpose for  the foundation is “to create opportunities that educate while inspiring children to be great”. During his presentation, he brought 6 motivational speakers because they wanted to inform us about how to make changes while we are still young and for us not to be failures. After they had given their speeches, we were dismissed to workshops.  I'm in eighth grade, so we had the mature workshops. The boys were separated from the girls because some of the workshops were gender specific. The workshops included: Good Touch/Bad Touch, Financial Literacy, HIV/AIDS Awareness, High School Prep and Domestic Violence. Good Touch/Bad Touch talked about the proper ways to be touched by peers, opposite sex and adults. Financial Literacy talked about how to handle your money and save up in the future. HIV/AIDS awareness was about how you get HIV, the effects of it and how to 

prevent HIV. High School Prep taught us ways to prepare for high school and what it’s about. Lastly, the Domestic Violence workshop talked about the signs of domestic violence, how you could be an abuser/victim and how you can get help.

These workshops expanded the minds of children who attend Blow Pierce. We now know what good decisions to make in life, and we know that we can either make or break our future. We thank The Michael Walton Foundation and everyone else who came out and talked to us. I think that everyone enjoyed it. We hope they will be able to come back soon.

Kiani Bell is an eighth grade scholar at Friendship Blow Pierce Academy.