Lighting Up The Avenue 2021
On Friday December 17, a little bit of lightness and brightness could be found up and down Selkirk Avenue. Indigenous Vision for the North End, sakihiwe Festival and many other partners worked together to bring us the annual winter celebration Lighting Up The Avenue! We missed the gathering for the last few years as Indigenous Vision was re-organizing itself under its new name and also got their bearings during a pandemic, but they made up for it with this year’s celebration.
Candles, Cookies & Community
When I first walked up to Selkirk Avenue on Aikins street, I noticed immediately that there were these strange ice buckets placed along the avenue. As the evening went on, I realized these beautiful circular ice buckets were actually protected candle holders…lighting up the avenue! It was such a great touch and really added some warmth to walking down a street doing outdoor activities in a Winnipeg winter. North End Women’s Centre was my first stop and they had hot chocolate and cookies and a friendly Grinch to hang out with. The folks from the sakihiwe festival set up some snacks and an outdoor projector at the bell tower where folks could watch musical performances, Urban Circle hosted a Santa picture taking party and Merchant’s corner had prizes, a logo contest goodies to hand out. There was also a very awesome gingerbread person cut out, outside of Merchant’s corner where folks could take pictures with this big ginger cookie and I really enjoyed that too. Mama Bear Clan helpers were also walking up the avenue bringing community love and awesomeness to all who attended. I trutly enjoyed being able to see so many community members in a safe outdoor and festive environment!
Boosty Boosty
Finally, the folks at North End Community Renewal Corporation were giving out a bunch of cookies and other items to community and also had Winnipeg Regional Health Authority on site to be providing folks with their covid19 booster shots. Since I had a relationship with the building, relationship with the nurse, my 6 months since my second shot had passed and it felt so comfortable - I was able to get my third covid booster shot right at the event! I thought it was a genius move of the organizers to bring in public health supports and offer booster shots to eligible north enders at this event. I hope that I can continue to partner and work with public health nurses to bring education and opportunity to the North End and beyond. I want to encourage folks to be safe against this virus by taking every available opportunity to protect ourselves and our loved ones, whether that’s vaccines, masks, washing hands, keeping a safe distance, minimizing exposure or whichever tool we need in the moment, I want all of you to be safe and healthy and alive to celebrate events like this with community in the future.
Gratitude and Excitement
I am so grateful to Indigenous Vision for the North End and all the partners that made Lighting Up The Avenue such a success this year. I know I can speak for many in the neighbourhood when I say that we missed this celebration when it wasn’t here and I am pumped for the future collaborations and celebration that can happen when the many awesome teams, groups, helpers and organizations in the north end work together. Can’t wait to see what IVNE and the partner organizations get up to next, can’t wait for the next musical awesomeness from sahikiwe festival and I can’t wait for this virus to be under control so we can build community in person once again. But until that moment comes, I am grateful for the things that have kept us safe in these unprecedented times, I will continue to do my part so that when we all gather together again, no one is missing.
Stay safe out there relatives, happy holidays!
