Wallowa County Chieftain
Education
wallowa.com
December 6, 2017
A9
Making bullies at school disappear
Magic shows
address school
bullying in a fun,
memorable way
By Kathleen Ellyn
Wallowa County Chieftain
Magic came to Wallowa
County last week.
Elementary students in all
school districts in the county
were treated to individual
magic shows performed by
Magician Jeff Evans. Evans,
who produces more than 250
shows per year, is a special-
ist at creating presentations
for children that emphasize a
theme. For Wallowa County
schools, it was “No Bullies
Allowed.”
The program was pre-
sented by Building Healthy
Families and was paid for
through the organization’s
prevention program. Jessi
Howard, Building Healthy
Families Prevention Coordi-
nator, said that bullying was a
topic that had been brought up
by many individuals.
“Parents and schools raised
concerns,” she said. “Build-
ing Healthy Families brings
in a speaker every year, and
we thought bringing bully-
ing prevention and our usual
yearly ‘message act’ together
would kill two birds with one
stone.”According to the
National Bullying Prevention
center, school-based bullying
prevention programs decrease
bullying by up to 25 percent.
Even better, more than
half of bullying situations
stop when a peer intervenes
on behalf of the student being
bullied.
Evans also performed at
a Family Night Magic Show
in Enterprise on Nov. 28,
with presentations in Enter-
prise and Wallowa. Wednes-
day morning he finished up in
Joseph.
Evans began his school
presentations by telling a
story recalling how he didn’t
like a new student because he
didn’t know anything about
him.
Later, he discovered that
his assumptions about the
student were wrong and they
became friends. He asked the
students if any of them had
the experience of being reluc-
tant to get to know someone
new. Many hands shot up.
Having established himself
as someone who made mis-
takes and then learned “just
like you,” Evans was able to
show, rather than lecture, how
everyone could learn to be a
buddy, not a bully, by learning
how to be “upstanders” rather
than “bystanders.”
That positive and interac-
tive approach is a hallmark of
Evans’ shows. He was named
Children’s Magic Champion
at the Pacific Coast Asso-
ciation of Magician’s 2000
convention.
“It was a wonderful pro-
gram,” said Wallowa Supt.
Bret Uptmor. “The kids were
engaged and really inter-
acted with the material and
knew lots of answers to his
questions.”
Although he produces
several other programs on
self-esteem, reading and sci-
ence, Evans said he began
to see a need for a program
on bullying, he said, and he
worked for about nine months
to develop his positive atti-
tude program into a program
that focused on bullying.
“Magic is pretty univer-
sally popular,” Evans said.
“Kids respond to it.” Par-
ents and teachers along with
administrators and teachers
alike were constantly laugh-
ing along with the kids and
joyfully pointing out reac-
tions of awe and surprise
among their students that tick-
led them.
“Everybody was extremely
pleased,” said Enterprise Supt.
Erika Pinkerton.
Evans began his career at
12 with a magic book. He’s
now a member of the Interna-
tional Brotherhood of Magi-
cians, Pacific Coast Associ-
ation of Magicians and the
Tacoma Magic Club. He’s
regularly called to perform
for adult events at Fortune
500 companies as well.
Unbeknownst to teach-
ers, classes had voted on who
was the most skilled at giv-
ing “warm fuzzies” and praise
to others. Those individu-
als were worked into a magic
trick and then revealed.
“Winners” at Joseph were
Olan Fulfer, Jacob Micka,
Shari Warnock and instruc-
tional assistant Tonya Col-
lier; Enterprise honored
parent volunteers Rhonda
Harguess and Lorien James,
and instructional assistants
Toni Iyoha and Vikki Olsen;
and Wallowa honored district
secretary Pam Stitzel, Terah
April and student Scotlyne
West.
Names of local teach-
ers and administrators were
also worked into the story-
telling as fictional charac-
ters that were positive exam-
ples (“Wise Queen Kilgore
of the Land of Harmony,” for
instance, for Joseph Principal
Sherri Kilgore).
There has been and will
continue to be plenty of con-
tinuing involvement in the
anti-bullying
campaign
throughout the schools.
“We’ve done lots of activ-
ities during the week, and we
have a handprint poster of all
the kids making their pledge
to be a buddy not a bully,”
said Uptmor. “It was a good
week.”
Paul Wahl/Chieftain
Jeff Evans entertains area students prior to a magic show
Nov. 28 at Enterprise High School. In addition, Evans spent
Tuesday and Wednesday in area schools presenting an an-
ti-bullying program.
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