New book by a SigEp teaches kids about bullying, diversity

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New book teaches kids about bullying, diversity

By Andy Proffet, Staff writer
Published: Monday, January 13, 2014 8:05 AM US/eastern

Andy Proffet photo Bob Kelly has written and illustrated 

a book, "11 fish friends," to help kids see how to deal 

with bullying.

Bob Kelly learned a lot about diversity during his time at Vincennes University.

Thirty-eight years later, he's using those experiences in an effort to address bullying.

Kelly, a graphic artist, has written and illustrated a children's book, "11 fish friends," based on his experience in a fraternity at Vincennes University.

The Seymour native, who moved to Shelbyville after living in Cincinnati for 25 years, was a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon at Vincennes in the mid-70s.

* "We never met before, different nationalities, different ethnicities, short, tall, good-looking, ugly," Kelly joked about his fraternity brothers. "Thirty-eight years later, we still see each other.

"It really taught me about never passing up the opportunity to make a friend. We were the most diverse population you can imagine ... we learned you accept everyone for who they are."

That mentality was reflected in Kelly's thinking as he saw news reports about bullying while living in Cincinnati. He began to ponder how to use his own story.

"When I was running that by a few people, teachers, they said, 'Bob, what you've got there is the beginning of an anti-bullying book.'"

Once the book was finished, he sent out PDFs to promote it to gauge interest. When it was time to actually publish the book, the first print run was paid for by his fraternity brothers.

Kelly said the book is being used in the Dugger school system here in Indiana and in the Rocky Mount school system in North Carolina. He's also sold about 75 books to parents and grandparents through his Facebook page, facebook.com/HoobieBooks.

The book is also available on Amazon.com. Cost is $8.

Andy Proffet is a staff writer for The Shelbyville News. He can be reached at aproffet@shelbynews.com. Follow him on Twitter @AndyProffetTSN.

'via Blog this'

Opportunity at SigEpBlog - want to talk about it?

One of the most trite and self-serving of blog posts is the "I-have-not-posted-enough-lately-and-I-plan-to-do-better" post. Ok, so I am trite and self serving. Sue me.

A main objective of writing a blog is to convey opinions and elicit comments. That, along with an attempt at broadening the communication channel between chapters was the reason this blog was started in the first place. We have, I think, done a pretty fair job of gathering SigEp news from across the country and presenting it here. And we are always on the lookout for new ways to inform. The recent addition of Ed Jones' excellent entries with information about SigEps who have served in the armed forces is an example.

However, the posts lately have not been the type that get people fired up to contribute to the discussion. That is not the fault of the people who are posting, they do an oustanding job of scouring the web for SigEp related news. Rather it is the type of posts. The posts that inspire discussion are almost always the ones with a point of view and a strong opinion. Not surprisingly those are also the posts that increase readership. So lets see if we can do something about that...

Do you have an opinion? Want to challenge views of the what/why/how of a Greek system in the 21st century and in turn be challenged? Have a different viewpoint on the direction of the Fraternity? Think we are doing great and shold keep a steady course? Would you be willing to commit to posting your ideas on a regular basis (a bit tougher than it sounds, trust me)? I'd like to find one or two (or three) more people who will be willing to share their outlook on the achievements and challenges of SigEp today and tomorrow.

Let me be clear - gray hair is NOT required, fancy titles are NOT required, 'litmus test' opinions are NOT required. What is needed is an informed viewpoint on fraternities and sororities in general and SigEp in particular. We want to get people talking about how to improve, not shouting about who is right or wrong. Oh, and did I mention that this is a volunteer (read: unpaid) gig?

If you would like to be considered, send an email to wordjunky@gmail.com. Let me know who you are, where and when you are from (i.e. chapter and year), and include a short sample of the kind of writing you want to post. You should be willing to post on the order of once a week to once a month. I will select from the applications and show them to the rest of the blog team for input and then let you know what happens next. I look forward to hearing from you all.

...and yes, comments are encouraged on this post too.