Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
TAYLORSVILLE — The Knights of King Arthur's Roundtable treated people with respect and never bullied. That's more or less what members of the Intermountain Renaissance Arts Foundation would like children to believe if it will help them better deal with bullies in the future.
"Knights traditionally, they're all about chivalry and honor," Oliver Jones, an IRAF volunteer said.
Jones came to Lit'l Scholars Learning Center, dressed in armor and a crown, to play King Arthur. The anti-bullying campaign includes a knight, a dragon and others, like Ariana Allred, who came dressed in Medieval-style dresses.
"We dress up for fun," Allred said, giggling. "I guess that's the fun way of putting it."
Allred, who writes and narrates the program, said IRAF volunteers regularly go into schools to help teach reading and history. Bullying is a new subject they hope to tackle in the coming school year.
"We get to have our hobby and do something with it that's important," Allred said. "We have this story of King Arthur, who uses knightly virtues like they did back in Medieval times. We can now have our kids become modern-day knights."
Some of the volunteers, like Jones, said they experienced bullying as a child and wanted others to know how to better handle those situations.
"When I was being bullied I didn't feel like I had anyone," Jones said. "I felt like teachers didn't care. I didn't know I could go to teachers."
As an added plus, the volunteers said the costumes and the swords, shields and armor help keep the children's attention.
"Well, I would pay attention," Jones said, laughing. "The more we can teach each other to be kind and honorable, the better our world will be."
