Organizations in Yorkton come together to celebrate National Child Day

Yorkton organizations celebrate National Child Day, marking the occasion with celebrations and events. Fruzsina De Cloedt has more.

Organizations came together to celebrate National Child Day in Yorkton on Friday.

34 years ago, in 1991, Canada joined the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and made a commitment to ensure that children are treated with dignity and request. Nov. 20 became National Child Day, an opportunity to teach children about their rights and responsibilities.

On Friday, fifth graders flocked to the Society for the Involvement of Good Neighbours (SIGN) building on Broadway Street in Yorkton to participate in a fun but important event.

“[The children] are divided into groups of 10, and they visit each station for six minutes,” organizer Irma Van De Bol Nicol explained. “In that six minutes, they’ll learn a little bit about the right that [specific] station is talking about, and also about the services that are available for them in Yorkton.”

The 10 stations were staffed by local organizations, such as Van De Bol’s Big Brothers Big Sisters, the Yorkton Fire Protective Services, Yorkton’s newly re-opened Indigenous Friendship Centre, and others.

“[National Child Day] is all about the different rights of the child around non-discrimination, providing safe space, and the right to join groups, and to know their responsibilities as children,” Nicol said.

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Despite the serious tone, the fifth graders seemingly enjoyed themselves at the stations.

“There are some [stations] which are really interactive, where they’re playing a game, tossing a ball back and forth. There’s others where [children] get to draw, where they get to make some beading, where they get to do different activities. Also, others that are for those more that are more [for] an auditory learner,” Nicol said.

At one of the stations, children were working with beads. The woman behind the desk was from the Indigenous Friendship Centre, Florence Vereti. She told CTV News that at her station, students could learn to connect with their “own unique gift.”

“Being able to feel that they have their language and culture and whatever background that they come from, that they have those equal rights.”

CTV News asked some of the fifth graders about the lessons they learnt at SIGN National Child Day event.

“Children are free to [do] the thing you want and to be able to learn about other peoples, nationalities and other things, and make new friends,” Angel said.

“You should always be kind no matter where you are. And to always know that you’re loved and respected,” another student, Everly, said.

This was the 30th year of organizing the event in Yorkton.