Today, Chris Kuykendall looks like a strapping young football star. But the 16-year-old didn’t always have the cool-kid clout at school that he has today. In fact, as a young kid, he was bullied very badly. That’s why whenever he heard about a kindergartener getting bullied at school, he knew he wanted to do something about it.
The 5-year-old got to the point where he was so sick to his stomach over the ridicule from other students that he would throw up before he went to school.
“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,” said Chris.
Chris decided to invite the boy to lunch with him so that all the bullies could see that he was hanging out with a cool football player. Soon, he earned the respect and gained the confidence he needed to make it through the school day with a smile. Chris’s friend on the football team, Brevin, saw what he was doing and decided to join the cause.