Businesses encouraged to ‘paint the town pink’
The village will appear a little more colourful next week as Nottawasaga and Creemore Public School harnessing the power of pink.
On April 13, International Day of Pink, NCPS students in Grades 4-8 will be touring the village in small groups from 11:20 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 1:40 p.m. to 3 p.m.
They will be visiting participating businesses that have installed a pink window display and will be posting clues for an equity-themed scavenger hunt. Some of the activities will be a surprise for the participants.
On the International Day of Pink, communities across the country, and throughout the world, unite in celebrating diversity and raising awareness to stop homophobia, transphobia, transmisogyny and all forms of bullying.
The International Day of Pink started in Nova Scotia when two straight high school students intervened when they saw a gay student being bullied. He was wearing a pink shirt.
The students, David Shepherd and Travis Price, purchased pink shirts, and a few days later got everyone at school to arrive wearing pink, standing in solidarity.
The result was that an entire school took a stand and began working together to prevent homophobic and transphobic bullying.
Last month, two groups of students were successful in applying for Ministry of Education Speak Up grants for student-led projects.
NCPS students Chancellor Stamp, Emma Woodhouse and Brady Wilson pitched the Amazing Race, rainbow edition, a week of equity-building activities around the Day of Pink, supporting the development of coping strategies and positive messaging around inclusiveness.
They received a $1,000 grant to cover the cost of some of the activities, such as T-shirt decorating and making buttons with equity messages.
The school has sent out letters to local businesses, inviting them to support the initiative.
Anyone interested in participating is asked to contact principal Alison Golding by Friday, April 8 so she can distribute clues on the day of the event. E-mail agolding@scdsb.on.ca.
As a precaution, a rain date has been set for April 14.
