Kingwood Mother Creates a Positive Response to Bullying

Written by Administrator

According to recent FBI statistics, violent crimes continue to rise in our schools, as evidenced by various campus rampages, the new trend in cyber bullying, and teen suicides. This has rattled the nerves of parents across the country. Tina Mansfield, a mom and graphic designer from Kingwood Texas, decided to use her skills to respond to an increasingly egocentric, mean and competitive environment among our youth. She has designed a ring called String-Ring — The Kindness Reminder.

The attractive sterling silver ring is designed to be threaded with interchangeable colored strings and is inspired by the old custom of tying a string around your finger to remember something, in this case ... kindness. Each ring comes with a set of 10 strings, each color representing a particular act of kindness.

“Worn as inspirational jewelry, the ring is designed to help us remember kindness, consideration and respect towards others” says String-Ring creator, Tina Mansfield. “I believe by simply reminding people of their innate desire to be kind, we can ease social pressure, bullying and acts of retaliation. Kindness is something we should emphasize and teach to our children through our words and own actions.”

Using colored string as a teaching tool is an ancient concept that is easily understood by children and has been used all around the world. String figures created for story telling have been a popular tradition in Native American, Alaskan and African cultures. Even today, for example, Oklahoma storyteller David Titus will be taking his stories and talent of making string figures to Palestine in January, as part of a mission to get Palestinian children to play with Israeli children.

Tina has donated the first 100 String-Rings to The Rachel’s Challenge Project. Rachel was the first victim of the Columbine school shooting in 1999 and her father, Darrell Scott, travels the globe speaking to high-school students at assemblies in the hope of promoting kindness and tolerance.

According to String-Ring owner, “As the new trend begins in enlightened business, the corporate world recognizes that the time is right for a change in the way we view the world — our attitudes and directions, especially in our schools. The need to move towards unity instead of separateness is imperative. By wearing a String-Ring, people will join our growing kindness community and will share in a uniting message that each one of us is a member of a community and therefore have inherent responsibilities, such as acknowledging that our actions have consequences.”

“We are in the process of creating a kindness blog. Here, kids can share their own acts of kindness”

If you’d like more information about this topic, please email Tina Mansfield at info@string.ring.com or log on to String-Ring.com

String-ring was designed by Tina Mansfield, a graphic designer and mother, who was concerned with a noticable lack of respect and kindness between co-workers, children and adults, and between peers. In addition to being a very attractive piece of jewelry, a String-ring reminds us to slow down and treat our neighbors with respect and kindness.