Getting Involved

Community - School

In your community

• Combine your celebration of "Canada - Take it to Heart" with a celebration of the Canadian winter. Organize a sporting event or a snow-sculpting party in your local park around the theme of "Our National Symbols" or "Our Heritage."
  
  
• Work with your public library to set up an exhibit that focuses on a wide variety of Canadian symbols, including our national and local parks and heritage sites, our two official languages, our multicultural society, or some other aspect of our heritage. If the library has a program for school children, suggest a speaking contest where each child chooses a symbol that is special to him or her and describes its importance to the history of Canada.
  
  
• Become a volunteer in your neighbourhood. Donate your time and skills to an activity that you enjoy and that can help others. Contact your local Volunteer Bureau for more information on how to get involved.
  
  
• Organize a citizenship reaffirmation ceremony in your community or at work. Combine this with a reception to honour members of your community who have recently become Canadian citizens. Invite them to talk about why they chose Canada as their adopted country and what being Canadian means to them.
  
  
• Set up a display where you work or where your group or organization meets. Have sections on various local, provincial/territorial, and national symbols. Provide information about your own community and organization.
  
  
• Develop a contest (perhaps based on the Canadiana Quiz), and share it with others at work or in your group/organization.
  
  
• In honour of the anniversary of the Canadian flag (February 15), show your colours with pride. Decorate your workplace and ask everyone to wear red and white - Canada's official colours. Award a small prize to the most imaginative and colourful outfit or display.
  
  
• Experience one aspect of Canada's rich and vibrant cultural diversity - ask the cafeteria in your building to serve a menu of regional Canadian dishes this week.
  
  
• Ask your local newspaper, television, or radio station to cover an event that celebrates this week. Encourage them to run a contest based on the Canadiana Quiz throughout the week. Suggest that they conduct interviews on "Why I am Proud to Be Canadian" or "My Heritage is Important Because..."
  
  
• Start thinking about ways in which your organization or group can mark the millennium. Begin gathering items for a time capsule, start a heritage preservation program for a specific area in your community, or come up with another idea to take your group into the 21st century.
  
  
• Plan a public flag-raising ceremony on the 15th in front of your city or town hall, at a local school or library, at an art gallery or museum, or in the lobby of your building. Invite your local school band, elected officials, local recipient(s) of the Order of Canada, local sports figures, or representatives of the RCMP, the Canadian Forces, and The Royal Canadian Legion to take part. Have a guest speaker. Sing O Canada in both official languages. Call 1-800-524-5599 to inquire about small amounts of promotional materials available for flag ceremonies.
  
  
• Approach local businesses and suggest that they decorate their windows with a Canadian motif, including our official colours ­p; red and white. Perhaps they can provide each of their customers with a maple leaf flag lapel pin on February 15. Contact shops on your main streets and the management of your local shopping mall and ask that Canadian symbols be displayed prominently throughout the mall during this week.
  
  
• Have your organization or group hold a potluck dinner honouring Canada's multicultural heritage. Ask everyone to bring a food that is unique to their own culture.
  
  
• Make special visits to senior citizens' residences and hospitals and adopt a grandparent. Spend time listening and learning about local history and other interesting stories that will enrich both of your lives.

In your school

• Read a book, play, and/or several poems by a Canadian author. Talk about the symbols and imagery that make these works distinctive. You could also watch films by a Canadian filmmaker, listen to Canadian musicians, or study Canadian artists.
  
  
• Create a "Canadian Family Tree." Put a paper tree trunk with branches up on a wall. Give students coloured paper maple leaves on which they can write their name and a sentence on "Why I am Proud to Be Canadian," and stick the leaves on the tree. Display the finished project in your class or to the whole school.
  
  
• Have a class discussion, and set out the criteria for a good citizen award to be held in your class or school each year. Recognize students who do something special either for their classmates or for the school. Present the award at a class or school assembly.
  
  
• Invite the class to think about and present ways in which they and their families can help the environment. Share ideas about everyday ways to make your community more environmentally friendly. Assign projects dealing with our national and local parks and historic sites.
  
  
• Place a map of Canada in your classroom. Put a pin on all the places that students in your class have visited in other provinces/territories. During a class period, ask each student to tell what they saw and did while they were in that part of the country. Discuss the customs and traditions that may be unique to that particular area.
  
  
• Have a special day on Canadian citizenship. Invite someone who has recently become a citizen to speak about how important citizenship is and why they chose to live in Canada. Conduct a citizenship reaffirmation ceremony at an assembly at your school. Call 1-800-524-5599 to find out how to do a citizenship reaffirmation ceremony and to order enough "Take it to Heart" reaffirmation certificates, flag pins, and hand flags for everyone who will participate in the ceremony.
  
  
• Suggest that your school band, choir, or glee club stage a noon-hour performance of Canadian songs - both English and French - and invite the community. Distribute lapel pins to everyone who attends, and be sure to end your event with the singing of O Canada.
  
  
• Ask a local Aboriginal leader to speak to your class about Canada's First Peoples. Perhaps he or she can teach you the meaning of place names in your area that come from the region's Aboriginal peoples or can give you a message about caring for the environment.
  
  
• Organize a "Canada-Take it to Heart" festival in your school or community centre. Assign each class or group a different theme, and have them set up booths with audio or visual presentations. For example, highlight aspects of Canadian history and society, famous Canadians or Canadian inventions, geography, science, architecture, or historic sites. Ask members of the community to come and browse, and invite community leaders to attend as guest speakers during your festival.
  
  
• Organize a "heritage" show and tell. Ask each student to bring and share with the group an element of his/her family's heritage. This breathes life into family treasures, promotes feelings of pride, and connects children to their roots.
  
  
• Ask students to participate in an essay contest on a theme such as "What Canada Means to Me." Perhaps publish the winning essay in the school paper or the local community newspaper.
  
  
• Encourage students to participate in Project Youth Link, an exchange and communication project through electronic networks such as SchoolNet. Students can take this opportunity to communicate with others from across the country to exchange information about their communities and to learn about the different regions and cultures that are part of Canada.
  
  
• Select a focus project for your class to work on over the months leading up to Canada Day on July 1st. Set out your particular project goal, such as an environmental clean-up strategy in your community, and mobilize the entire class to work towards that goal. Cooperation and community spirit are the keys to this type of activity.