For the last 9 months, every single day, children in Atlanta have seen billboards, commercials, and signs at bus stops like this:

If you are thinking “it’s not that big a deal” I want to tell you that, as a former bullied fat kid, I think it is a very big deal.  The messages couldn’t be clearer.  If you’re fat – you should be ashamed.  If you’re not fat – you should be terrified of becoming fat because fat people are diseased gluttons by choice and it’s ok to publicly shame them.

If Atlanta was a gymnasium, fat kids would be standing against the wall while older, bigger kids from CHOA hurl dodgeballs at them.

I couldn’t stand not to do something.  Something big enough to show these kids that, even if they feel all alone, someone has their backs.

Enough is enough. It’s time to stand up for these kids and give them a tangible symbol of support and hope.  It’s time to stand up for the powerless bullied fat kids some of us used to be.  It’s time to stand up for our current fat selves,  friends, family and neighbors.

It’s time to do something big.  Today is Big Fat Money Bomb day. We are raising the money to put up billboards and print media campaigns from a Health at Every Size® perspective to show kids of all sizes that they are valued and respected.

Thanks to the More of Me to Love Match, we are already half way to our first billboard. They have donated $5,000, and to access that money all we need to do is raise the other $5,000 and get 1,000 individual donors, so every little bit helps and your donation goes twice as far.

Does $5,000 sound like a lot?  Let’s put some perspective on this number. If each of my followers gave $10, we would raise $21,220 – enough for 2 billboards and a large media campaign with the MOMTL match.  If each visitor to the blog from yesterday donated $10 we would raise $41,680, enough for four billboards and a massive media campaign.  To meet goal we only need $5,000.  We can do this!  And when those billboards go up and as the publicity around them gets our experts into the media talking about the Health at Every Size(r) Approach, we can all be proud.

I remember what it was like to be bullied as a kid.  Right now there are fat kids in Atlanta doing the very best they can to deal with the shame, stigma, and humiliation being thrown at them.  Let’s stand up and help them fight back.

Update: We raised over $12,000 in our first 24 hours on 2/2/12.  Now our goal is to get 1,000 individual donors so that we can unlock our challenge donation of $5,000 from More of Me to Love!   Wo today (2/3/12) is Solidarity Dollar Day.  If you are reading this I’m asking you to spend a minute of your time and a dollar of your money to show that you care about these kids and help us get another $5,000 to run a massive media campaign with bus stop signs, ads in newspapers etc.

DONATE A Solidarity Dollar NOW!

If your donation is more than $5.00  it is also greatly appreciated and you’ll donate through our GoFundMe site.  Click Here!

Every donation, no matter how small, bring us closer to getting 1,000 individual donors and unlocking our $5,000 More of Me to Love Matching Donation.  Every little bit TRULY helps!