September 30th: Orange Shirt Day and the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation

Hello Helen Detwiler Community,

On Thursday, September 30th, Helen Detwiler, along with HWDSB, will be honouring Orange Shirt Day and the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation.  We encourage all of our community to wear an orange shirt on this day.  We wear orange on honour the story of Phyllis Webstad, who in the early 1970s had her orange shirt taken away on her first day at the St. Joseph Mission (SJM) Residential School in British Columbia.

We encourage you to wear orange on Thursday, September 30th to honour the children whose lives were lost and survivors of Residential Schools.  Beginning in May, 2021, 215 bodies were uncovered at the Kamloops Indian Residential School, and since then, over 6, 100 bodies in unmarked graves have been unearthed.

At Helen Detwiler, we will have Every Child Matters stickers for those students who may have forgotten to wear orange and wish to participate.

HWDSB has created some resources to support your family.  For more information, please click here.