Harlem Globetrotters raise awareness of bullying and slam dunk at local school

L-R: Buckets and Zeus

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Provided By: ACC Liverpool

Sweet Georgia Brown! A Liverpool school recently had the pleasure of welcoming two members of the world-famous Harlem Globetrotters basketball team.

Ahead of their next visit to Liverpool in the spring, Anthony “Buckets” Blakes and Julian “Zeus” McClurkin visited St Vincent De Paul Catholic Primary School during Anti-Bullying Week to discuss The ABC's of Bullying Prevention, designed to prevent and raise awareness of bullying.

The programme conists of Action (taking action when you feel that someone is being bullied), Bravery (telling a parent or guardian or, if in school, a teacher about a bullying situation) and Compassion (helping the victim and making them feel welcome as a friend or within your group of friends), all of which help to combat cases of bullying and bring comfort to the person being bullied.

Buckets (whose nickname comes from his accuracy in shooting hoops) and Zeus (who recently broke a Guinness World Record for the most slam dunks in one minute) explained the programme to the schoolchildren, and also helped a number of the kids to perform some nifty basketball tricks. Perhaps this is a sign of things to come in the future for some of those youngsters!

Speaking exclusively to Writebase, Zeus commented: "We came over here to share a message with these kids about the ABCs of bullying prevention, which is one of the more prominent things going on in schools today. The National Campaign to Stop Violence (NCSV) issued essays to kids all around the world where they asked them what their number one problem is that kids are facing, and they said that bullying is the number one problem. So, they partnered with us because we visit hundreds of schools every year and we get a chance to impact these kids' lives, and so we developed this programme called The ABC's of Bullying Prevention."

Having been formed 90 years ago, the Globetrotters have become the most recognisable basketball brand in the world, and will return to the Echo Arena in Liverpool on April 26 2016 to perform live. You can get tickets by clicking here.

For more information about the Harlem Globetrotters, click here.

For further details about The ABC's of Bullying Prevention, click here.