Imagine waking up every morning as a child so nervous to go to school, that it causes you to throw up. Every day you have to face the cause of your anxiety – bullies. Bullies that tease and torment you daily and make your experience at school a living nightmare. This was 5-year-old Keison’s story before a selfless high school football star with a similar history with bullies stepped in.
Keison was coming home with bruises and tears in his eyes day after day from being kicked and called names.
Chris Kuykendall, heard about Keison’s story and decided to do something about it. Kuykendall is a star varsity football player at Hobbs High School in New Mexico. Kuykendall remembers the days when he was bullied when he was younger.
“It just hit home. I remembered how I felt when I was getting bullied. It just fired me up. I wanted to change that right then and there. I didn’t want him to go another day, wake up another day, feeling like he didn’t need to go to school,” the football player said.
Kuykendall made it his mission to have lunch with Keison at school so all of the bullies would know that he has a “big friend”.
He brought Keison an autographed football from the team and provided a sense of security and friendship.
screenshot via [Meredith Show Youtube]
“Going to that lunch it was just like fun, you know, seeing his face just light up when you walk in there and seeing him happy, him getting that football,” said Chris. “He was happy and it just blew up after that, like everyone started volunteering and like all of the parents just wanted it to happen, you know,” Kuykendall continued.
After that lunch visit, Keison no longer had a bullying problem. Kuykendall’s efforts made one of his football buddies, Brevin Young, want to make an impact as well. The two started an organization called Eagle Buddies with a mission to “adopt” a younger child who is a victim of bullying.
screenshot via [Meredith Show Youtube]
“It’s not like you’re just going to go and just have lunch with them and it’s just like that’s the end of it,” Kuykendall said. “We keep in contact with them, we talk to them still they basically get a friend for life.”
Eagle Buddies has inspired the community with more football players and cheerleaders joining the organization.
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