Child Brings Harmony Among Kids and Politicians

In 2006, Jamie Nagode was a featured attraction at both a leadership conference and two concerts. Not bad for a 13-year-old girl.

In between singing solos in Evergreen and Bailey, Colorado, she talked to 500 high school students at Leaders' Challenge in Denver in November. She told them about leadership and confidence, two qualities she has embodied since at least 2001, when she launched Kids for Harmony.

Jamie Nagode wasn't nervous speaking to hundreds of older students partly because she has been addressing large crowds since she was 7 years old. In second grade, while watching footage from the Columbine High School attack and other school shootings, she realized reducing bullying in elementary schools could help prevent such violence.

With support from her family, school and district officials, she started Kids for Harmony to help teach children to respect one another and recognize signs of bullying. The first Kids for Harmony day was Sept. 22, 2001. Scheduled 10 days after Sept. 11, 2001, community members were anxious to get involved with something peaceful and positive.

A crowd of more than 1,000 attended the first rally, giving Jamie a crash course in public speaking for a large crowd. Since then, she compared any potential crowd to the mass at the first rally.

"For a long time she equated everything to that first Kids for Harmony day," said Jill Nagode.

Now, if a speaking or signing engagement has an audience of less than 1,000, she knows she can pull it off.

She began the program at Maple Grove Elementary School near Denver, where referrals of bullying and violence went down 70 percent. Violence at the school remains low. Maple Grove feeds into the Manning School, where violent incidents have also been reduced.

"A lot of middle schools have more issues with bullies and elementary schools, too, and Manning and Maple Grove have always had one of the least amounts of problems, and Kids for Harmony has helped that," said Erin Kelley, Jamie Nagode's friend who also is instrumental in Kids for Harmony. "Everyone knows about it, even if they're not involved."

The program took root throughout Jefferson County and the Denver metro area, and the Nagode family met with federal officials in 2004 to spread the program around the country. Though she does not have a tally of schools that adopted similar programs, she had queries from educators coast to coast. Many attribute the program's success to Jamie Nagode's warm, generous personality.

"I love her enthusiasm for everything she does," said Cari Breget, a mentor in Jamie Nagode's WyldLife middle school youth group. "She's a very inclusive person. ... She's easy to like and really brings everybody in."

Last year, Jamie Nagode's younger brother also helped spread the anti-bullying campaign to grown-ups and politicians. Jared, now 9, had long been involved in Kids for Harmony.

"He picked up and learned from what Jamie was doing," said their mother, Jill Nagode.

In particular, Jill said her son has long watched over an autistic girl in his class. After seeing negative political ads, he was reminded of mean kids at school.

"Wow, that's bullying," the 8-year-old reportedly told his mom. "Jamie should do something about that."

They both did something about it, through Kids for Harmony. While the group is not trying to ban any kind of political speech, it has collected thousands of signatures on a petition pledging not to support negative campaigns.

During last year's campaign, both major Bill Ritter and Bob Beauprez signed the pledge, as did many other candidates for state and national offices, all agreeing not to use attack ads.

While some say political attack ads can be informative, others see them as base mudslinging that dismays and turns away potential voters, particularly children before they even have a chance to vote.

The Nagode kids hope to restart the campaign in earnest next year during what promises to be a heated, high-stakes campaign season.

In the meantime, Jamie Nagode will continue her voice lessons with Laurie O'Neil in Evergreen and the Alpine Voices choir. Even with her extensive public speaking experience, she said singing solos is still a challenge.

"I'm kind of used to performing now, but I always get nervous," she said.

Her next performances are on March 20 at the Manning School in Applewood and on June 16 and 17 in Evergreen.

She also looks forward to more motivational speaking opportunities, where she hopes to teach others of all ages that they can make a difference in their communities.

"I've learned that it's really hard to pull something like this together but if you keep at it and you're really passionate about it and you work hard at it you can achieve something from it," Jamie said.

To learn more about the Kids for Harmony campaign against negative advertising and add your name to the pledge, visit www.kidsforharmony.org.

This story was originally published in City and Mountain Views magazine.