While many students across Simcoe County donned orange shirts today to honour National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, some students in Collingwood decided to take their efforts a step further.
Julianne Ford and Grace Van De Vechte, Grade 11 students at Our Lady of the Bay Catholic High School in Collingwood, sold Every Child Matters stickers for $2 a piece leading up to Sept. 30. As of Thursday, the fundraiser had brought in $775 which will be donated to Water First.
“We thought that, as a school, we should be doing something,” said Ford. “However, we weren’t really sure what to do because we felt like we personally can’t really touch on the topic so we wanted to do what we could to educate ourselves and spread awareness.”
Water First is a national charitable organization that works in partnership with First Nations communities to resolves local water challenges through education, training and collaboration. It has worked with more than 50 First Nations communities in Ontario, Quebec and Labrador on environmental and drinking water projects. The charity has a training office in Creemore.
“For a long time, the school and school board has always done Orange Shirt Days, but I feel like we’ve never really asked questions as to why we’re doing it,” said Ford. “We didn’t really know how we could further help the cause.”
The duo looked into Indigenous artists to provide the design for the stickers. They reached out to Newfoundland Mi'kmaq Artist Marcus Gosse through Instagram who consented to the use of a design he created. Visual FX in Collingwood printed the stickers.
Van De Vechte said she and Ford are in the process of starting a Be The Change team at OLB, with a purpose of raising awareness on social issues and work on social justice. This initiative was the first project undertaken by the team, and she says she and the team would like to do more in the future.
For more information on Water First, visit their website here.
