Is your bucket half empty or half full?
If Reshann Butts of the Innisfail Family Day Home Society has her way, it will be overflowing.
“We celebrated National Child Day in Innisfail on Nov. 20 with a special campaign we call ‘Bucket Fillers',” said Butts.
The campaign is not what you might expect, as Reschann explains. “This is a values based movement, not a fill the small buckets with money for any specific purpose. It is very similar to the pay-it-forward concept, and based on encouragement to fill each other's buckets with kindness, whether it is with words or actions, not criticism or condemnation.”
“In terms of children in our community…,” Reschann said, “…they have the right to be heard, and to be protected. We want to be a community that values our children through words and actions, no matter what that looks like.”
Innisfail citizens saw reminders around the town last week. Special green fluorescent bucket filler wristbands were available at the FCSS office, the Family Centre, and the Henday Association for Lifelong Learning, for anyone who wanted them. After that, the job was simple: fill buckets of those all around, young, old, or middle-aged.
“It is important that we turn bucket filling into a long-term behaviour, all year long,” said Tammy Oliver-McCurdie, manager of the Family & Community Support Services.”
Several Innisfail agencies were involved with Bucket Fillers - FCSS, the Innisfail Family Centre and Innisfail Family Day Home Society, daycares, playschools, the Innisfail library, Innisfail Out of School Care, the Henday Association for Lifelong Learning, Discoveries Play School, CHIPS program, and John Wilson Elementary School.
“Our office participated fully and filled buckets to overflow. Even the Town of Innisfail offices and councillors got into the spirit,” said Oliver-McCurdie.
National Child Day is celebrated in Canada in recognition of the 1993 Canadian Child Day Act in support of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Child, and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
