A student’s positive approach to bullying is picking up steam and the City of Airdrie declared Thursday Positive Post-it Day to get the community behind her message.

The campaign calls for people to pick up a Post-it, write a note of encouragement and brighten someone else’s day.

The idea started when someone broke into Caitlin Prater-Haacke’s locker at school, accessed her tablet and posted nasty comments on her Facebook page.

Caitlin and her mother Nicole appeared on CTV Morning Live Calgary on Thursday to talk about the initiative.

“At that point I knew that something really needed to be done. I mean the student body was really down about it and bullying affects everybody it really does. Whether it be one comment or one post or in-person, it’s affecting everyone and I knew there was something that we could do as a school to bring the spirit up,” said Caitlin.

The Grade 11 student says she saw an idea on Pinterest about Post-it notes on lockers so she went out and bought 800 the next day, one for each locker in her school.

“I wrote things like ‘you’re beautiful’ and ‘you’re awesome’ and ‘love yourself’ and I went ahead and I stuck them on every locker in the school and all over the washrooms,” said Caitlin.

“Seeing Caitlin, she was obviously hurt when she found out about it, but she wouldn’t let the bully win, she knew that what was written wasn’t true and so she decided that she would show them that she could rise above it and I was and am very proud of her,” said Caitlin’s mother Nicole Haacke.

The school originally had concerns about who would cleanup all the sticky notes but Caitlin says the response from the student body has been overwhelming. “It was absolutely fantastic!”

The group Airdrie Moms jumped on board and then the idea steamrolled from there.

“Airdrie really took it on and it became our baby and we really wanted to make this day, that we could all do it, that we could all show how much we really care for each other and that bullying happens but we want to try and fix it,” said Caitlin.

Staples also joined in and donated a basket full of Post-it notes and a gift card for more supplies.

For more information on The Positive Post-it Campaign click HERE.