Pepe Fanjul, Jr., Executive Vice President of Florida Crystals Corporation, and his West Palm Beach-based company are sponsoring Do the Write Thing, a youth violence prevention program, for the 10th year in a row.
Do the Write Thing is an initiative of the National Campaign to Stop Violence (NCSV), a non-profit organization dedicated to helping middle schoolers make a commitment to end violence in their homes and communities. Through the program’s primary initiative, the “Do the Write Thing Challenge,” students are encouraged to take personal responsibility to prevent violence around them.
This year, more than 28,000 students from more than 30 schools in Palm Beach County took part in the Challenge, submitting essays and poems about their experiences with bullying and teen violence and their ideas on how to end them. The top two entrants, 7th grader Kirsten Brown and 6th grader Quinton Williams, were selected as Palm Beach County’s 2016 Ambassadors and were introduced by Fanjul and his wife, Lourdes, at their home in April.
Florida Crystals has underwritten the costs of the program’s annual Recognition Luncheon and the travel expenses for Brown, Williams, and their parents and teachers to attend this summer’s Do the Write Thing Recognition Week, both of which will be held in Washington, D.C. In Washington, Brown and Williams will discuss solutions for ending teen violence with other Ambassadors from across the country and members of Congress, the Secretary of Education and the Attorney General.
To learn more about the National Campaign to Stop Violence and Do the Write Thing, visit http://www.dtwt.org/about-dtwt.