Heather Latter
In online
challenge
for funds
The local Celebrating Diversity Committee is moving forward with plans to implement a “Respect Campaign” here—and now is looking for people to vote for their cause in the Pepsi Refresh Project.
“We’re hoping that through spreading the word throughout the district, and our friends beyond the district, that we can get enough votes to do two things,” noted committee chair Trudy McCormick.
“One, it would be wonderful to get the funding to help us get the campaign off the ground,” she said.
“The other is to raise awareness of what we’re doing.”
The “Respect Campaign” will be comprised of a number of programs and strategies meant to raise awareness of how people should treat one another.
The committee plans to provide training to district businesses and organizations on respect. These, in turn, will be given visible identifiers (i.e., buttons, lanyards, posters, and door signs) so that anyone going into these organizations immediately will know that they can expect to be treated with respect.
McCormick said the committee got the idea and basis of the campaign from a very successful project which Confederation College had started back in 2006.
“It started with the realization that something was needed to inform people, and educate people, about respect and everything that goes with it,” explained Anne Renaud, manager of the local Confederation College campus.
“We’ve had a lot of success with it, and it’s really helped both staff and students understand what respect means and how it can be used in everyday life,” she noted, adding they were happy to share their information with the Celebrating Diversity Committee.
“One of the things Confederation College did that was so successful was a lot of branding of their campaign,” McCormick said.
“When you go into a classroom and you see the respect logo, hopefully it brings to mind some of the ideals and qualities of the respect project,” she reasoned.
Renaud, meanwhile, thinks it’s great that the Celebrating Diversity Committee is interested in expanding the campaign into the general public.
“Respect means respect no matter what,” she stressed. “It’s something that impacts every person, business, and organization.”
The committee is developing its own campaign so that when people go into businesses and organizations, they then recognize it is one that values respect.
McCormick noted the definition of diversity is very broad, and includes gender, socio-economic status, sexual orientation, religion, people with disabilities, people with mental illness, race, age, etc.
“The ‘Respect Campaign’ we’re developing is basically to respect differences,” she remarked.
“It’s a feel-good idea,” she added. “When you tell people about it, they say that’s the kind of thing they want to be involved in, that’s the kind of business they want to shop in, that’s the kind of organization they want to work for.”
The committee also plans to work with the local school boards and officially launch the campaign in September.
Their idea to spread the “Respect Campaign” throughout Rainy River District is in the $10,000 category of the Pepsi Refresh Project, which aims to support ideas that will have a positive impact on communities.
The top three ideas in the category will receive funding.
The local “Respect Campaign” initiative currently is sitting in 35th place, with online voting continuing until the end of June.
“People can vote every day, once a day, with each e-mail address they have,” McCormick explained.
“Even if we don’t succeed [with the funding], if people know about us because they voted, then it’s a success,” she reasoned.
The Celebrating Diversity Committee focuses on “working together to create communities that celebrate diversity by actively practicing and promoting dignity, respect, and inclusiveness.”
To vote for its idea, visit www.refresheverything.ca/respect
Meanwhile, two other ideas in the district also are competing for funds through the Pepsi Refresh Project.
The Township of Emo is seeking $25,000 to plan and implement a recycling strategy there.
As well, the Rainy River District School Board is interested in creating green spaces at every school in the district if it receives $25,000.
These ideas, which currently are sitting in 55th and 51st place, respectively, are in a separate category from the “Respect Campaign” idea, so Renaud is encouraging people to vote for each of them.
Vote for the latter two ideas at www.refresheverything.ca/emorecycling and www.refresheverything.ca/greenspace