The Flag Shop Celebrates Pink Shirt Day

February 25th, 2016 Posted in Anti-Bullying, Edmonton, General, Montreal, New Brunswick, Vancouver, Winnipeg
Comments Off on The Flag Shop Celebrates Pink Shirt Day

On February 24th, also known as Pink Shirt Day, everything looked rosy at The Flag Shop. From coast to coast, Flag Shop employees slipped on their pink shirts and lined up for selfies.

Anti-Bullying movements are a big deal to us here so we like to do what we can to support the initiatives that come our way. Most recently we launched a school fundraising program that enables schools to spread the Anti-Bullying message while raising money for school initiatives. In the pink shirt photos below, you may even steal a peek of some of the anti-bullying products we carry.

Now without further ado, the parade of pink shirts!

First up were the early risers at The Flag Shop New Brunswick:

Then Le Flag Shop Montreal got in on the lutte contre l’intimidation:

The Flag Shop Winnipeg made Pink Shirt Day a family affair:

While the The Flag Shop Edmonton location felt some puppy love:

Last but not least, the The Flag Shop Head Office staff posed outside for a photo. There were lots of cars driving buy, so hopefully we served as a human billboard for the message.

 

HAPPY PINK SHIRT DAY EVERYONE!

Pink Shirt Day isn’t the only day that promotes the Anti-Bullying movement; next up is Day of Pink on April 13th and the United Nations Anti-Bulling Day on May 4th. For more information on Anti-Bullying initiatives and to learn more about our school fundraising program, visit www.antibullyingflag.ca.

, , , , , , , , ,
Read More

A Field of Flags at the George Derby Centre

November 6th, 2015 Posted in General, Vancouver
Comments Off on A Field of Flags at the George Derby Centre

George-Derby-(29)

It was an overcast day, but still bright and surprisingly rain-free, when 200 high-school students descended upon the lawn of the George Derby Centre, a veteran care facility in Burnaby, B.C. Within minutes the lawn was filled with thousands of flags, winding down either side of the pathways, dispersed over the grass and a few more adventurously placed in the nooks and crannies of the nearby trees and shrubs. The sight is one to behold, sombre and patriotic, the flags creating a meditative walk of Remembrance for members of the nearby community.

George-Derby-(39)

Meanwhile, sparks of joy emerged from the haphazard way the flags have been arranged. Children of all ages visited the centre, from the high school across the road and the neighbouring elementary school, to assist with the flag planting. This activity gave the children a healthy way to commemorate Remembrance Day by allowing them to participate, rather than only observe. Veterans of many ages were present to greet the children and interact with them as they excitedly determined the most beautiful location for their flag. Their energy brought smiles to fragile heroes and added life to the display that will surely remain long after they’ve returned to their classrooms.

George-Derby-(9)

Left to right: Cpl. Daniela Panesar, Pamela Cole, S.Sgt. Maj. John A. Buis

Finally, the most precious flags were saved for a place of honour. A few flags had been inscribed with messages of remembrance and gratitude for the Centre’s residents. One flag summarized it all. It read, “In very loving memory to all the veterans who called George Derby home.”

We would like to add a “Thank You!”

George-Derby-(53)

The George Derby Centre cares for 300 aging and wounded veterans and could use your support! If you would like to Pledge a Flag yourself, there is still time (and flags) to do so. Be sure to visit www.georgederby.ca to find out more about the Centre and to make a donation today! The flags will remain on the grounds until November 12th, at which point that large group of high-school students will return to undo their handiwork.

The Flag Shop produced all of the flags for this event, they are customized, water resistant paper flags that were specially printed for George Derby. For more information on how you can create your own Remembrance Day flag display, contact The Flag Shop nearest you or visit our Remembrance Day website.

, , , ,
Read More

A Celebration of Diversity in Moncton, NB

September 22nd, 2015 Posted in General, New Brunswick
Comments Off on A Celebration of Diversity in Moncton, NB
Is it the United Nations? No, it's the inclusive cafeteria at Evergreen Park Elementary School.

Is it the United Nations? No, it’s the inclusive cafeteria at Evergreen Park Elementary School.

For Evergreen Park Elementary in Moncton, N.B. flags go hand in in hand with every new school year. As New Brunswick becomes more culturally diverse, so do its students, and this school has found a great way to make new students feel welcome.

Adorning the walls of their cafeteria are flags of the world. Every flag represents a student or students that attend Evergreen and whose cultural heritage lies in another country. These flags serve to create a friendly environment for students and to remind everyone that Evergreen is an inclusive place that supports the ideals of multi-culturalism.

Madame Antigone Panagiotakis, the school’s principal, had this to say about the flag program:

“We are very pleased that Evergreen Park School’s student population is becoming increasingly diversified, with many international families choosing to make Evergreen Park School their home.  In order to welcome our international students, we decided to display their country’s flag. These flags celebrate our school’s multicultural flavor, create an inclusive environment, and prepare our students for today’s global community.”

The Province of New Brunswick has an official policy on multiculturalism which states:

“New Brunswick’s policy on multiculturalism strives for a unity which does not deny or eradicate diversity but which recognizes and transcends it. At the same time, it seeks to ensure that in acknowledging and appreciating cultural diversity, these differences, so accentuated, do not become a cause of discriminatory treatment to impede individuals in their desire to become an integral part of the larger community.”

The flags serve this initiative by visually accentuating the differences in culture while at the same time encouraging equality through hanging equally sized flags at equal heights in the same shared space. They also help to beautify a public space in the school, making it a more desirable community environment.

Great job Evergreen Park!!

—-

World flag collections are a great way to celebrate diversity in your community. To start your own international flag collection, visit the World Flag section of our online store.

UPDATE: The school has been featured by Global News!

, , ,
Read More

Terry Fox Run, 35 Years and Going Strong

September 18th, 2015 Posted in General, Vancouver
Comments Off on Terry Fox Run, 35 Years and Going Strong
terryfoxflag

A Terry Fox Run Banner displayed at our store.

“Even if I don’t finish, we need others to continue. It’s got to keep going without me.” – Terry Fox

The Terry Fox Run celebrates its 35th Anniversary this Sunday which is a real cause for celebration. In 1980, young Terry Fox set out to race across Canada. Often,  he would cover about 26 miles in one day, and day after day he continued.

It was an inspiring endeavour and one that captured the heart of many Canadians. The Flag Shop was fortunate enough to be involved in that first year when our founder, Doreen Braverman, approached Terry Fox’s mother, Betty with an idea to produce flags for the event. We then designed a 3’x6’ flag that sold for $100 dollars apiece with all proceeds donated to the cause her son was championing.

We continued to produce these flags for the Terry Fox Foundation for several more years. Now we have only one left which will hang proudly this weekend behind the speaker’s podium at Stanley Park where Terry Fox’s sister, Judith Fox, will be speaking.

TerryFox-1980

A photo of Laura Hansen with one of the original flags in 1980.

Thank you to the Terry Fox Foundation, for allowing us to participate in this way and for those of you who feel moved to donate to the cause, we encourage you to visit their website and make a contribution.

, , ,
Read More

Pride 2015: Vancouver Wrap-Up

August 17th, 2015 Posted in General, London, Pride, Vancouver, Victoria
Comments Off on Pride 2015: Vancouver Wrap-Up

2015 was a big year for The Flag Shop’s involvement in LGBTQ+ Pride celebrations with a lot of firsts. We launched our new Pride mini-site: pride.flagshop.com, joined in partnerships, and made donations to important local charities as well as launching a new contest. Read on to see the specifics of our involvement.

This year The Flag Shop came out in a big way. While our company has a longstanding relationship with members of the LGBTQ+ community this year we really took things to the next level.

Beginning in May, with the launch of our Pride-specific website, pride.flagshop.com, our commitment to the cause has really taken on steam. The website not only features our entire Pride product line but has also expanded to include a comprehensive listing of Pride events across Canada, Pride news coverage, a listing of Pride Societies across Canada and more. We are working on adding new products to our line to better serve the LGBTQ+ community.

Clockwise (from top-right): Our media wall looking great at this info booth (Photo: Vancouver Pride); Two of our Pride booth workers; A custom sewn Transgender flag for PFLAG Vancouver; One of our furry booth volunteers; Some Flag Shop paper flags adorning some fabulous shopping carts in the parade. (Photos: Rebecca Love)

Clockwise (from top-right): Our media wall looking great at this info booth (Photo: Vancouver Pride); Two of our Pride booth workers; A custom sewn Transgender flag for PFLAG Vancouver; One of our furry booth volunteers; Some Flag Shop paper flags adorning some fabulous shopping carts in the parade. (Photos: Rebecca Love)

We also deepened our involvement with local charitable organizations. We recently worked with the Vancouver Pride Society to produce a media wall for them as well as running a Pride flag booth at the Vancouver Pride Festival with proceeds being donated. We also donated a hand-sewn transgender flag for PFLAG Vancouver, an organization that speaks for a more accepting Canadian society in regards to sexual orientation and gender identity issues.

From left to right: A standing banner outside of the Out on Screen Gala Opening; Two retractable banners fresh off the press in our production warehouse.

From left to right: A gamma banner outside of the Out on Screen Gala Opening; Two retractable banners fresh off the press in our production warehouse.

The Vancouver Queer Film Festival has some great new banners at a discount as a result of another print partnership, this time with their organizer, Out on Screen.

From left to right: Early Bird Winner, Tyler; 2nd Place winner, Kylee; Grand Prize Winner, Zoltan

From left to right: Early Bird Winner, Tyler; 2nd Place winner, Kylee; Grand Prize Winner, Zoltan

This was also the year of our first ever #PrideFlag social media contest! In an effort to encourage people to proudly show their Pride Flags all around Vancouver, we launched a photography contest that yielded some great shots and a few excellent winners that helped raise the profile of the Pride flag even further.

From left to right: The Flag Shop Victoria takes part in the local Pride Parade; The Flag Shop London set up a booth at Niagara Pride.

From left to right: The Flag Shop Victoria takes part in the local Pride Parade; The Flag Shop London set up a booth at Niagara Pride.

Better still, it’s not just here in Vancouver that The Flag Shop is involved in Pride activities. Our store in London, Ontario had a great booth set up at Niagara Pride while The Flag Shop Victoria made a giant Pride flag and used a pick-up truck to drive it in the local Pride Parade!

All in all we made some great memories through this year’s Vancouver Pride season. Of course Pride issues aren’t just important at one time of year, so we’ll continue to grow and strengthen our participation in supporting LGBTQ+ people as an ally. What is coming next? I guess you’ll just have to wait and see.

, , , , , , , , , ,
Read More

5th Annual Mike Gibson Memorial Golf Tournament

June 12th, 2015 Posted in Vancouver
Comments Off on 5th Annual Mike Gibson Memorial Golf Tournament

On June 13th, 2015 family, friends, and fellow golfers will gather for the 5th Annual Mike Gibson Memorial Golf (MGMG) Tournament to raise funds for the Canucks Place Children’s Hospice. The Tournament was started in June 2011 following the death of Vera Gibson’s son Mike who, alongside his high school sweetheart Kelly Pockett, were involved in an accident that took both of their lives while driving back from the family cabin near Penticton.

Each year about 65 participants ranging in age from teens to late sixties enter the Texas Scramble format tournament, which allows players of all skill sets to participate in a fun filled round of 18 holes. Following the tournament portion with prizes up for grabs, there’s a family style BBQ and silent auction / raffle hosted at the Gibson’s cabin. To date, $15,529 has been raised with no plans to end the tournament anytime soon. Vera says that the Canucks Place Children’s Hospice was specifically chosen because “helping other families who are dealing with challenging circumstances feels like a good fit.”

Mike-Gibson-Golf-Tournament-Group-Shot

This year, after realizing that a windsurfing board and laminated photo of Mike used to promote the tournament was on its last leg, Vera visited The Flag Shop Vancouver to inquire about pricing for a custom flag that would be able to replace the damaged board. After coming across Vera during her in store visit (unaware that she was there to explore signage options), President Susan Braverman, touched by the story behind the tournament and Vera’s ability to turn her loss into something positive was happy to donate a flag of Vera’s choice. The final product – a feather flag specially designed for the tournament – speaks for itself!

Feather-Banner

With no official sponsors or staff, the tournament is truly a labor of love. As not only the main organizer but also an accomplished writer and certified life coach, Vera sees her involvement as an investment of time that would have been spent in other ways if Mike were still here. Instead of celebrating future birthdays and holidays together scattered over the years, Vera’s planning and hard work is a condensed ball of energy that gets poured into the weeks leading up to the event and on the tournament day every year. Although the pain that comes from losing a loved one never disappears, we couldn’t image a better way to celebrate Mike’s precious memory. Thank you for letting us be a part of your wonderful event!

If you know of a special event or charity that needs banners or signage, contact us to discuss how we can help your organization shine.

, , , , , , , ,
Read More

We are wearing pink today!

February 25th, 2015 Posted in General, London, Saskatoon, Toronto, Vancouver
Comments Off on We are wearing pink today!

Staff in our stores across the country wore pink for Pink Shirt Day (February 25th)!

The Flag Shop Vancouver donated 1,000 Anti-Bullying paper stick flags to I Am Someone‘s annual Walk2Talk event on February 22nd.

, , , , , , , , ,
Read More

“Respect Our Teachers” paper flags

September 12th, 2014 Posted in Support BC Teachers, Vancouver
Comments Off on “Respect Our Teachers” paper flags

 

Paper flags just got here! And by paper flags, we mean just the paper. Now comes the labour intensive part where we hand staple all of them to the sticks.

We invite you to come pick them up in our store (1615 Powell Street) on Saturday afternoon and distribute them at the rallies at the Vancouver Art Gallery (Sunday morning 10 a.m.) and Holland Park in Surrey (Sunday evening 5 p.m.).

The paper flags are FREE to take to rallies, protests, and picket lines. If for some reason they are not all distributed, you can bring them back to us so we can keep giving them out. Or if people start tossing them, they can be collected and brought back. We’ll recycle the ones in rough shape.

Some people have given us donations for the free items to help us cover costs which we definitely appreciate and only use to keep making more items. These are not expected, just appreciated and we wanted to acknowledge that.

The 8.5″x11″ posters are available now.

Everyone has been very cooperative and reasonable with what they take so far, and we really appreciate it! Thanks for letting us help fight this battle.

See the most recent post here.

, , , ,
Read More

Susan’s interview in the Vancouver Courier

September 12th, 2014 Posted in Support BC Teachers, Vancouver
Comments Off on Susan’s interview in the Vancouver Courier

Photo by Dan Toulgoet

Read Susan’s interview with Cheryl Rossi about The Flag Shop’s involvement in supporting the BC teachers on strike.

 

, , , , ,
Read More

“Respect Our Teachers” car flags now available

September 10th, 2014 Posted in Support BC Teachers, Vancouver
Comments Off on “Respect Our Teachers” car flags now available

We’re just finishing these up! As Susan said, she gets the first one.

The price is $20.00 each for the public and $10.00 each for teachers.

For simplicity, both these prices include taxes. We will need the “honour” system for the “public/teacher” prices because these cost us $15.00 each to make. The more that the public buys, the more we can make for teachers.

Right now, these are only available in The Flag Shop Vancouver at 1615 Powell Street. You can come by to order, or you can call us at (604) 736-8161 (toll free 1-800-663-8681) to order.

See the most recent post here.

, , ,
Read More
Older Entries