NWSD Orange Shirt Day honours residential school students

Jun 13, 2017 | 1:00 PM

A design contest creating T-shirts is helping students in the Northwest School Division (NWSD) honour residential school students, while also creating public awareness.

Communications Officer Kaitlin Harman said that the participation level for the Orange Shirt Day contest has been good division-wide, and awareness of the initiative has been positive. The theme of the event is ‘Every Child Matters.’

“Last year was the first year we got all the schools involved with recognizing Orange Shirt Day,” she said. “Transition Place Education Centre had held their own contest, and saw great success. Because of that, we wanted to set it up to have it as a division wide project.

Orange Shirt Day recognizes and honours students who attended residential school, and is symbolic of one young girl’s experience, Harman noted.

“It’s about the story of Phyllis Jack who attended residential school in BC,” she said. “When she was young she was going off to school, she had a brand new orange shirt that she was proud of. She didn’t know what to expect and when she got to school, they took away that shirt and it was really symbolic of the fact that she lost part of her identity.”

Harman said that many schools have promoted the project, and it has been well-received.

“We had over 50 submissions,” she said. “We had students from Grade 3 to 12 participate, and from right across the division. The engagement level is really good too, a lot of people are voting and sharing our posts on social media, too, so the awareness is out there. Our schools have done a great job taking opportunities to discuss residential school in conjunction with the Orange Shirt Day and throughout the school year.”

Orange Shirt Day typically takes place around September 30 each year, and Harman added that the contest runs at this time of year to give the division time to get the shirts designed and distributed. The contest closes Wednesday, June 14 at 3 p.m. and the submissions can be viewed and voted on the Northwest School Division Facebook page.

 

kathy.gallant@jpbg.ca  

On Twitter @ReporterKath