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.

Our 2016 Annual General Meeting

Greetings from Toronto! (Actually, we’re back in Vancouver now.)

Last week, head office staff and franchise owners came together in Toronto for our Annual General Meeting. This is our yearly chance to meet, greet, discuss, plan, and party, and did we ever accomplish all that and more! Since this year the meeting was in Toronto, we also did a few supplier visits and got to see firsthand just how a flagpole is made (I’ll write more on that next week). Below are some photographic highlights of the 2016 AGM Toronto.


The Flag Shop AGM takes place every year in January. This is an opportunity for all of the franchises across Canada to come together. Our next AGM will be right at home in Vancouver BC, and we’re already excited for it!

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.

Happy Halloween!

Some highlights from Halloween at The Flag Shop Vancouver this year:


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Pirate Flag

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Banners for No More Cruelty

No More Cruelty

No More Cruelty was founded by Crystal (top left), our marketing manager at The Flag Shop head office. Together with her sister Rosemary (top right), they advocate and assist with various animal rescue efforts by coordinating with various volunteers and rescue groups in Taiwan.

When Crystal mentioned to Susan, our President, that she had to borrow a flag from the pet store to promote “Don’t buy! Adopt a pet” concept while she was on holiday in Taiwan this past January, Susan offered to support her efforts in animal rescue. Two 24″ x 33.5″ custom banners made with Coast Display were donated by The Flag Shop, one will be used in Taiwan and one in Canada.

The above picture was taken at the Taipei International Airport in March 2014. Crystal was the volunteer ambassador to accompany these seven rescued dogs to Canada where they had new homes waiting for them.

See other causes The Flag Shop Vancouver supports.

A custom retractable banner for Dachshund Rescue Team

Dachshund Rescue Team custom bannerWe love dogs! Julia, our Business Development Manager, recently added to the pack that comes to our office by adopting a dog named Lizzy.

As a way of saying thank you to Dachshund Rescue Team for matching her with her new friend and facilitating the adoption process, we designed and printed a custom retractable banner for them.

Angela at Dachshund Rescue Team will be using it for different trade shows and events that they attend to spread awareness for their organization.

 

Banner redesign? We can do that.

When the Punjabi Market on Main Street wanted new street banners to replace some of their aging ones, there was a bit of a kerfuffle with getting the original artwork from 2003. Our marketing manager/designer/all around wunderkind, Crystal, was given the task of ensuring that the new art had all the same elements as the old art but modernized to take advantage of being digitally printed instead of screenprinted like the originals. As you can see, the original design was less intricate while the new design is more vibrant and detailed.

 
Original design from 2003   New design now up in Punjabi Market

Also, she did this in about 90 minutes in case you were wondering about the sheer amount of talent we have on board here.

The Flag Shop Vancouver shows off popular flags for Global BC

Mike McCardell from Global BC stopped by our store to find out which flags are best sellers and which are… not. In addition to a star-making turn by Susan, you can also see staff members Saya, Breanna, and Ali.

Canada flags are, of course, our best seller, but the new Diamond Jubilee flags are doing brisk business. I suppose we’ll be holding onto that “No Bozos” flag until people decide that bozos aren’t welcome once again. These things are cyclical.

Custom flag for One Epic Journey’s ride to conquer cancer

We are excited to show off the flag we have donated to the One Epic Journey team who are doing the 2012 Ride to Conquer Cancer that goes from Vancouver to Seattle in June. Team captain Bill deGroot got some of the staff to pose with the flag before it left the building.

One Epic Journey flag

One Epic Journey will be carrying the flag across the start and finish lines of the event as well as flying it at their campsite between legs. They have just passed the $20k mark in fundraising, and their ultimate goal is $25k which I am sure they will reach. We wish them the best of luck on the ride!

 

Our rock star in residence

Ron Reyes

Photo by Jessica Brodeur at BeatRoute

Once upon a time, our amazing production manager, Ron Reyes, was part of the punk scene, most famously as the lead singer for the band Black Flag. Today he’s an unstoppable force of flag and banner production as well as a family man, but he still makes time for his current band PIGGY.  Ron was recently interviewed by the music magazine BeatRoute about his day job. You can read the interview here where he talks about his time with us at The Flag Shop, where our head office in Vancouver is in the process of rebranding.  (More on the rebranding later!)