I attended the Women’s March Canada last January with my son and daughter and my friend and her daughter. I have to admit I was nervous at first. I am relatively new to this whole social activism thing. I had never attended a March before! And I had definitely never brought my children to anything like this. But it was an amazing experience and I am super excited to attend this year’s Women’s March.
We wanted to make it really easy for other families to attend this year’s March. So, we have set up a World-Changing Kids Meet-up – with a meeting point on Parliament Hill, behind the East Block. This meet-up point is for any and all families who want to attend – those who are totally excited about this and have done things like this with their kids before, and those who are maybe a bit hesitant to bring their children to the event. We will meet at this location and then decide, once the program starts, if we want to move closer to the action or if we are fine where we are. We can then also decide if we want to march with the group to the final destination of the Bronson Centre, or if we only want to march a bit of the way, or if attending the beginning of the March was enough – depending on what the kids are feeling up to.
Please note that there is another option for families: the secondary meet-up point at the park at the corner of Bronson and Laurier. For those with very little ones, it would be a shorter walk to the Bronson Centre and they can join in when they see the crowd coming and feel safe.
ACTIVITIES AT THE BRONSON CENTRE – THE WOMEN’S MARCH DESTINATION
There will be a community fair, workshops, presentations and performances. Special guests include: Jaime Anderson, Rita Carter, Elaine Kicknosway, Maria Hawkins, Dandelion Dance, Colleen Cardinal and much more!
For more info check out the official poster here.
HOW TO GET THERE
We will be taking the bus. There are a number of buses that will get you to Parliament Hill. The OC Transpo website has a great Route Planner section. If you click here, it will take you to a page where all you have to do is type in the location you are leaving from and it will give you the best bus route to get there. You can also type in what time you want to arrive by and it will tell you when you need to leave.
I will also list some nearby parking lots (according to Google Maps) here in case you are driving:
Impark,
Impark,
Central Parking Inc,
Impark,
Impark,
WHY WE ARE MARCHING
This photo is from last year’s Women’s March. We made some beautiful cardboard signs. Then my children and I wrote out the Women’s March Unity Principles and taped this to the back of one of our signs so that we were confident about why we were marching! Taking turns, my daughter wrote one Unity Principle, then my son, then me, till we had all 8 completed. These are all principles that I am proud to stand up for.
And here is a photo of the signs that we made last year – that we will be using again this year.
I want to take my kids to this Women’s March to teach them that they have the power to take action on issues and causes they care about. I want them to have the confidence to attend marches, protests, meetings, vigils, etc. I want them to know that they have a voice and they have a responsibility to work towards making the world a better place. I want to plant these ideas seeds of social activism and engagement in their minds when they are young so that they are kind, empathetic and compassionate when they are the future leaders and decision makers. Because this is what the world desperately needs right now – more kindness, empathy and compassion.
IN COLLABORATION WITH BARRHAVEN KIDS SPREADING KINDNESS
I am organizing this World-Changing Kids Meet-up in collaboration with a group called Barrhaven Kids Spreading Kindness. This awesome group was started by a mom, Amy Wellings, after she purchased my book, “Plant a Garden of Kindness, A Child’s Guide to Filling a Year with Weekly Acts of Kindness”. Amy held the first planning meeting of Barrhaven Kids Spreading Kindness last week and we both agreed that we wanted to get a group organized for the Women’s March. You can check them out on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
MORE INFORMATION
In case you are like me, and need to read a lot of information to get really comfortable with something new and unknown before you take your kids … here are a few more links to read:
The event page for Women’s March on Ottawa: https://www.facebook.com/events/134598360558263/
The Facebook page for Women’s March on Ottawa: https://www.facebook.com/canadiansmarchinginottawa/
The website for Women’s March on Ottawa: http://www.womensmarchottawa.ca/
And feel free to send us a note at worldchangingkids@gmail.com if you have any questions.