The fourth annual residential schools victim and survivor memorial crosswalk painting saw its “best turnout ever” on June 7th.
Dozens of Grande Prairie residents including parents and kids, youth groups, and folks who just came by to support, flocked to the corner of 97th Avenue and 101st Street to dip their hands in orange paint and mark their support for those affected by residential schools.
Event coordinator Meghan Zatko says the turnout keeps growing every year, with some residents even making a sort of pilgrimage just to be a part of the occasion.
“There was a mom who walked blocks and blocks just to come to put her handprints on, which is so nice to see,” she says. “I could start crying this year, it’s so phenomenal to see the biggest turnout we’ve ever had. and there’s so many kids this year which is huge because they’re going to grow up knowing they matter.”
Zatko says she sees the annual affair as a recognition of the historic injustices so many Indigenous individuals have faced, and serves as an opportunity for residents to unite under one common goal.
“It’s a recognition of the injustices that happened to our Indigenous community, throughout centuries and is still happening today, and it’s bringing the community together to show unification and acknowledgment that these things are happening but we want to change it,” she says.
The crosswalk is strategically placed in front of the Grande Prairie Friendship Centre, which Zelko says she hopes will have a positive effect on the Indigenous youth involved in Friendship Centre programming.
