Each year, Roseau Valley School (RVS) in Dominion City hosts a ‘Love My Community Day’ event and this year, they added something new.
Principal, Jennifer Collette says Love My Community Day started with an idea from a grade 3 class she taught a few years ago.
“Every year we have continued it on and have seen lots of success and have received grants from local community organizations like Access Credit Union who sponsor the event and continue to be a big sponsor for that event for the day.”
She shares that because RVS is a community school, they believe community should be the center of the school and they want to continue to build relationships with the community.
“We know that when we have students who have lots of people rallying behind them, teachers, EA’s, custodians, people in the community, students are stronger and families are stronger, so that's really our mandate as a community school, to support families and build relationships with the community. That day is really about spreading kindness but it's also about making connections.”
Love My Community Day was hosted on September 19 and was filled with many fun activities including a story writing station, an eco-trail walk, games, and golf with a community member.
RVS added a new component to Love My Community Day after some grade 7 and 8 students attended a conference hosted by Border Land School Division.
“It's called Generating Momentum. And that conference was all about education for sustainability, and it was about fast fashion. They learned about how only 1% of the world's clothing is actually recycled and the rest ends up in landfills,” Collette says.
She explains that there also aren’t a lot of places to shop in rural Manitoba.
“Access is always in the back of our minds. Not everyone has transportation to get to stores to buy clothes. Also, affordability is another issue we know people face.”
Lil Fisher, the Community Connector at RVS says when the students came back from the conference, they began discussing ideas and a thrift store came to mind.
The ‘My Cousins Closet’ opened in the RVS library for the afternoon and students could come to pick out clothes to take home for free.
“It kept rolling in my head because my cousin sends a lot of things to my house to pass on to the kids here. And that's where the name came from, and the kids were all behind it. So, we set it up and on Love My Community Day, just to see how it would go, and it was a huge hit.”
Community members donated hangers and clothing racks to make it look like a real store.
“They had little reusable bags and kids came in, it was buzzing in there. Every kid in the school was looking at the shirts, and it was just it was incredible to see,” Collette says.
Fisher explains that they feel very blessed as a school.
“We're just asking teachers and their families to donate clothing. And we had shoes, we had belts, we had scarves, and we had a mirror in a room so people could try on things, so it was just very positive. The minute the door opened at 12:10, it was full.”
A corner of the library was specifically for graduating students, and they had dresses, suits, and ties.
Fisher says it was awesome to see the kids wearing clothes they picked out after the event.
“There wasn't a stigma attached to wearing someone else's clothes. It was just out there for everybody to choose from, and they are all in very, very good shape.”
She continues, “I think my favourite memory out of that day is our librarian helping somebody choose clothes and match clothes and discussing ‘Well, does this look good or should I try something else.’ It was just very connecting in that way too.”
Collette shares that seeing this event come together was very powerful because the students used information from a conference and made their vision come to life.
“When Border Land School Division hosted the Generating Momentum conference, over 100 students in Border Land School Division did attend that conference. So, I think there will be some great things to see ahead from students in our division.”
Fisher hopes to have ‘My Cousins Closet’ set up again on Parent-Teacher night in November so parents can be involved as well.