2020 Family Day Festivities at the Reuse Centre

This year was the first year I actually did something for Family Day. I took my brother and my grandpa to the Reuse Centre for Family Day festivities. We stayed for about 2 hours making a wind chime, envelopes with calligraphy, and visiting some educational booths. For younger kids, it seemed like the glitter tattoo station and DIY wind chimes were the most popular, there were lineups for both activities. My brother isn’t a big fan of glitter tattoos, so we opted to make a DIY wind chime, which was a lot of fun. There were a lot of reusable items supplied such as CDs, keychains, pearl strings, ribbons, bells, hoops, pop can tabs, etc., to make the wind chimes. My brother and I were able to get very creative because there were so many items to work with. My grandpa gave us motivational support and by the time the wind chime was complete, he was willing to get photographed with our finished craft. 

Image: Brother, Grandpa, and DIY wind chime

I think the wind chime we made is cute and the pop can tabs actually make a soothing sound when the wind moves them around. So, the project was a success. 

Another cool thing we made were envelopes out of old calendars. There were many options for types of calendars; I picked the calendar with European buildings and my brother picked an animal-themed calendar. 

On the left is the envelope that I made and on the right is the envelope my brother made.
Calligraphy by the Edmonton Calligraphic Society

The calligraphy is really beautiful, and the envelopes are very unique. We were given the option of putting a label with the name of the person we want to mail it to. My brother put his own name, later he decided he can add “from” before his name, if he wants to give it to someone else. I put “grandpa” on my envelope and will be giving it to him with a small letter inside before he leaves to go back home.

There were also educational booths with volunteers at the event. The two booths we attended were Change for Climate and Waste Services. Change for Climate had a wheel with different categories for testing peoples' knowledge of various climate-related issues. After spinning the wheel, my brother landed on “water saving at home”, then he was asked to provide ways to save water at home. This was a good way to have a conversation and we got some candy and stickers. They also had a variety of resources to share.

The Waste Services booth had a sorting activity with pictures of various waste items, and the person playing the game would have to sort them into compost, recycle, reuse, Eco Station, or garbage. My brother had fun playing that game, he surprisingly knew a lot about different waste categories, but still learned a bit more. As a prize we got two free recycling blue bags.

Overall, this event was amazing. It gave my brother something to do over his long weekend break other than playing video games and I was able to show my grandpa what a Reuse Centre is and what its purpose is. The centre was busy and full of families participating in activities and also shopping. There were staff leading families in the right direction and cookies being offered as a treat for attendees. I would definitely go again next year and recommend the Reuse Centre for anyone looking to do something fun and eco-friendly on Family Day. 

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Submission by Radhika (Volunteer)