Sophomore Kayleigh Melvin suited up Wednesday to perform a skit for the kindergarten and pre-k students of the Early Childhood Center. The skit and performance was put together through the Child’s Advocacy Center (CAC) by “Play It Safe!”, a child abuse awareness and prevention program aiming to teach children how to reduce their risk of sexual and physical abuse, and sexual assault.

“Happy bear is a skit that the CAC does,” Melvin said. “It’s about making good choices, [and] basically learning about how to protect yourself and say no.”  

The students were taught about consent and the actions one should take if approached and asked to do something unwillingly. Melvin, as Happy Bear, acted out a skit to show the students what they should do in a hypothetical situation where they were approached.

“The three main things that we stressed, if put in that situation where someone wants you to do something you do not want to do, was to say no, walk away and tell someone,” Melvin said.

Melvin was honored to be chosen by theatre director Taylor Jarman and enjoyed getting to perform for the students. She appreciated that she was given the opportunity to teach the students a valuable lesson that could prevent something that has affected so many young lives.

“[I chose] her because she’s fun, energetic and I thought she would enjoy getting to share her excitement with the younger kids,” Jarman said. “And I thought it would be great to see how she does in that kind of environment- getting to put on a big bear costume and dance around. I saw she would great at it because she is so outgoing.”