A brightly wrapped truck rolling through Metro Detroit streets is turning heads for more than its paint job. Behind the wheel is Jason Lewis, founder of the nonprofit One Good Word and One Good Deed, who has spent recent months building an anti-bullying movement born from personal tragedy and now expanding directly into area schools.
Lewis founded the organization after his daughter's 14-year-old close friend died by suicide following bullying, according to Metro Detroit News. That loss pushed him to build a group centered on the belief that one good word or one good deed can change the course of someone's day, or their life. Lewis also draws on his own history of survival: he was shot in the face at age 16 on Detroit's southwest side and has since suffered several strokes, experiences he says he now uses to connect with young people and help others.
The organization speaks out against bullying, racism and discrimination, and it aims to give students the knowledge and support to help prevent bullying before it escalates. Lewis wants young people to know they do not have to face hatred, bullying or discrimination alone, and that their lives have value. The group is based in Metro Detroit and maintains a presence through its Facebook group and website, ogwogd.org, where it is currently seeking school partners, volunteers and supporters.
A Truck Built to Be Seen
Central to the group's outreach is its brightly wrapped vehicle, which Lewis sees as a way to keep the organization's message visible in places traditional events and outreach can't reach. The truck has become recognized across Metro Detroit, with people reacting by honking, stopping for photos, and responding when they spot it on the road, per the same report from Metro Detroit News. Congressional candidate John Goci has publicly endorsed the effort, commending Lewis for using the wrapped Awareness Truck to oppose youth bullying and discrimination across Michigan, according to the organization's own site.
Lewis has also moved to formalize the group's access to schools. In May, he announced that One Good Word and One Good Deed had become a registered official vendor with Wayne-Westland Community Schools, allowing the organization to support outreach and merchandise distribution in that suburban Wayne County district. The following month, Wayne State University's Theatre department signed on as an official organizational sponsor, providing movie passes and promotional backing for the movement.
Curriculum Plans and the Scope of the Problem
Lewis plans to bring the organization's work directly into Metro Detroit classrooms, where students will learn how to recognize bullying, respond to harmful behavior, and understand how their words and actions affect others. That in-school push arrives against a backdrop of statewide data showing bullying and youth mental health remain persistent problems. Michigan's confidential OK2SAY tip line received 10,777 tips in 2025, with suicide threats accounting for 1,767 of them and bullying reports totaling 1,576, according to the State of Michigan.
State evaluation reports found that 70 percent of school administrators and law enforcement officers who received OK2SAY alerts in 2025 had previously been unaware of the crisis or bullying situation being reported, underscoring how often distress goes unnoticed by adults. The same tip line led to 57 immediate life-saving emergency transports or hospitalizations for students in active suicidal crises that year.
Michigan law already requires public school districts and charter school boards to adopt formal anti-bullying policies under the Matt Epling Safe School Law, which mandates parental notifications and incident reporting procedures, according to StopBullying.gov. The law was enacted after the 2002 suicide of 14-year-old Matt Epling, a Michigan student who had been severely bullied. Even so, Michigan Department of Education data analyzed by advocates found that nearly 270 public school districts or charter schools reported zero official bullying incidents during the 2020–2021 school year, a discrepancy that has sparked debate over underreporting, as detailed by Fox 2 Detroit.
Bullying Increasingly Follows Kids Online
Cyberbullying has compounded the challenge facing Michigan schools. Roughly 18.5 percent of Michigan high school students reported experiencing cyberbullying during the 2024–2025 academic year, according to data compiled by Defeat the Label, a Michigan-based nonprofit focused on peer-led anti-bullying education. Nationally, the trend lines up with federal findings: 19 percent of U.S. high school students reported being bullied on school property, and 40 percent reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, per Youth Risk Behavior Survey data published by the CDC.
For Lewis, those numbers reinforce the urgency behind One Good Word and One Good Deed's push into schools. He hopes to build communities where people speak up, extend kindness, and recognize the impact of positive actions, using his own story of survival to reach students who might otherwise suffer in silence. Those interested in connecting with the organization can reach it at (248) 808-9373.
