Hey Ottawa Friends! I am organizing another World-Changing Kids Meet-up for the Women’s March – Ottawa on Saturday, January 19, 2019. I am organizing this for families who are thinking about joining the March, but who are a bit nervous about it. That was me in 2017! I had never attended a march or protest before and did not know what to expect. I was very anxious about it, but I felt it was important to attend and to bring my kids. I decided last year, for the 2018 Women’s March, that since I was a bit more confident after attending my first march, I would extend an invite to other families to meet up with us so that we could march together and support each other. I would like to extend that invite again this year.
We are going to meet at the top of the centre stairs, over to the right – or to the east of the stairs – by the stone wall. From there, we will determine where the best place to stand is for our group. We will be holding up the World-Changing Kids sign that you see in the above photo to help you find us.
We will be there at 10:45. The march officially starts at 11:00.
We will then be marching as a group to the Aberdeen Pavilion at Lansdowne where there will be an awesome community fair with performers, speakers and fun activities. World-Changing Kids will have a table there where we will be doing Kindness Cards and a Kindness Painting. And we will have our book for sale, “Plant a Garden of Kindness – A Child’s Guide to Filling a Year with Weekly Acts of Kindness”, with proceeds from that day’s sales being donated to the Ottawa Women’s March.
It is going to be cold tomorrow. This might be a bit of a problem for the really little ones. There are a few options for this …. you could meet us at Parliament Hill, hear the speeches, march with us for a bit, and then pull into a warm coffee shop to wait out the march and then hop on a bus down to Lansdowne. Or, you could have your car parked a block or two away from Parliament Hill and drive down to Lansdowne.
There are also two meet-up spots closer to Lansdowne where you could wait and then join us for a shorter march:
CUPW National Office
377 Bank Street (corner Lewis). Doors open at 11:00 a.m. at this fully accessible location.
St. Giles Presbyterian Church
729 Bank Street (corner First). This site is not wheelchair accessible.
Or you could just meet us at Lansdowne for the community fair too. I assume that I will get there by about 12:30.
Just making the effort to participate in the march as much as you are able to will show your kids that kindness, love and social justice are important to you. Attending as much of the event as you can will empower your kids to believe that they have a voice, what they say matters and that they deserve a seat at every table.
If you have any questions about any of this, please send me an email at worldchangingkids@gmail.com – hope to see you tomorrow.