Why I stand with Stand for the Silent

Kirk and Laura Smalley founded Stand for the Silent in 2010, after their son Logan died by suicide following years of relentless bullying. He was eleven years old.

That is the organization. That is the cause behind the cause. And that is why I do not treat our work with Stand for the Silent as a campaign.

Stand for the Silent sends speakers into schools across the country. They tell Logan's story. They ask students to stand up for those being bullied. They train teachers and counselors to recognize the signs. They do the kind of work that does not produce a quarterly report but does, sometimes, save a child.

What Universal Events does to support the mission

Our job at Universal Events has been to handle the fundraising that keeps those programs running. Field campaigns, donor outreach, community events. The operational infrastructure that lets Kirk and Laura stay focused on getting into schools and having the conversations that matter.

I came up in communications. I worked in television news early in my career, and then in advertising. I learned how to tell stories that reach people. That training turned out to matter most in the work I find most important. Reaching people is not the goal when you are working with a cause like Stand for the Silent. The goal is to reach the right people, in a way that moves them, and to do it with enough consistency that the organization can plan around it.

I stand with Stand for the Silent because Logan Smalley deserved better. Because there are children in schools right now who need what Kirk and Laura are building. And because this is exactly the kind of work Universal Events was built to support.