ESTEVAN — Students at St. Mary's School heard a motivational speech Thursday that touched on a number of important topics.
Sam Demma brought his Empty Your Backpack Tour, touching on the importance of mental health awareness, kindness, anti-bullying initiatives and overcoming adversity. Students from Sacred Heart School/École Sacré Coeur were also at the St. Mary's presentation.
He started by hauling out a giant four-foot red backpack in front of the kids and delivering a spoken-word poem.
"The backpack … is used as an analogy for our minds to help students understand that they don't have to carry around the thoughts and opinions of other people, because if you do, what ends up happening is it's as if you have a four-foot, giant red backpack on your shoulders," he said.
The backpack allows students to see the challenges, insecurities and struggles that other people carry on their shoulders each day. Sometimes people will jot down the negative opinions they want to release on a sheet of paper and deposit them in the backpack. Others will write down the negative things people have said about them.
And some have asked him for one of the packing peanuts inside.
"I hope they realize, from this presentation, that they don't have to carry around the negative thoughts and opinions that society or other people are trying to place on their shoulders. I hope they understand they can be who they truly are, their authentic selves, even if society or other people don't clap for them, or show love and support for that authentic version of themselves."
Demma came up with the idea for the tour after talking to a Grade 12 student who was struggling with his mental health. The student wanted to have 50,000 followers on TikTok because then he thought kids would stop bullying him.
"Kids carry backpacks, so I wrote this spoken word poem called Empty Your Backpack, which was originally just for this young man. I turned it into an animation, and as I was writing it, I thought if you're carrying lots of negative thoughts, you probably have a pretty big backpack."
He purchased a massive backpack, decided to tour the country with his message, planned a route and started calling schools.
Joining Demma on the tour were Cross Novia, Aaliyan Kahn and Nina DeGagne, who have shouldered a lot of responsibilities. They have been living and travelling together as they spread this message to students. The spring portion of the tour will wrap up June 9 in B.C.
"We've had so many amazing stories of impact, so many different school communities involved, so many different staff members involved. We've been having a fun time as a team as well. Every Sunday, we take the day off and we try to do something fun and exciting in the cities we're stopping in."
But it's been a lot of hard work and they try to maintain their health while on the road.
Another tour of Eastern Canada will follow in the fall.
Demma also published a book named Empty Your Backpack last fall.
Empty Your Backpack has a partnership with jack.org, which Demma said is one of Canada's leading mental health charities. Ten per cent of the project's profits are donated to that cause, and jack.org donated a suite of follow-up resources for the schools they visit.
