Project teaches kids pride in their city

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/04/2018 (3029 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For me, it began with a letter delivered to my little mail slot in the Free Press newsroom.

Inside, there was a handwritten invitation from an 11-year-old kid that made me smile, even though I was half asleep because I had not yet had time to consume a single cup of coffee.

“Hello, my name is Sam from Room 5, Brock Corydon School,” the letter began. “We are doing a major project on Winnipeg. Our project is called Better Known as Winnerpeg.

“We are writing a tourism guide and we are writing it as an alphabet book. So every letter has a place in Winnipeg where tourists should visit. For example, I am doing F for The Forks. And the letter Q is for the quotes of celebrities in Winnipeg.”

So Sam invited me to send his teacher a quote, to be included in the tourism guide, on why I think Winnipeg is better known as “Winnerpeg.”

Which is exactly what I did. For the record, here is my quote: “Winnipeg is better known as Winnerpeg for one simple reason — the people, who are easily the kindest and most generous in the country. We have everything here — the Jets, the Bombers, plenty of snow and ice and the best summers anywhere — but it’s Winnipeggers themselves who make this place impossible to forget.”

OK, I know what you are thinking. You are thinking: “Quit trying to suck up to us, Doug. We already feel pretty good about ourselves, what with the Jets doing so well in the NHL playoffs and everything.”

Speaking of the Jets, here is the quote their general manager, Kevin Cheveldayoff, contributed to the kids’ alphabet-book tourism guide: “A message to Winnipeggers: While today is a great day, tomorrow has the promise to even be better. Tomorrow, I will have learned from yesterday and I will be stronger and it will be even a better day.”

Which is a pretty inspiring quote, now that I come to think of it. But that is not the point.

The point is that I dropped in at Brock Corydon School last week and visited teacher Susan Pereles’s combined Grade 5-6 class to check out their cool new book, which I wrote about at length in Saturday’s newspaper.

I wanted to write more about that visit today on the grounds that the book, the kids and the teacher left me feeling all warm and fuzzy and misty-eyed about the place we call home.

When I met her, Susan was decked out in her Jets jersey and sporting a smile more than a mile wide. She explained how the alphabet-book tourism guide was the latest in a nine-year series of pro-Winnipeg projects her class has been involved with.

“I do different projects every year,” she said as I thumbed through the book to find the page with my quote, just to make sure it had made the cut.

“It’s called the Winnipeg Inquiry. Last year was Game Changers of Winnipeg.

“I had the kids write handwritten letters inviting people who are game changers to come to the classroom and talk about Winnipeg. We had everyone from (radio personality) Ace Burpee to (children’s entertainer) Fred Penner. We had a pediatric urologist who saved one of the student’s lives when they were just a child.”

The point is, she’s teaching her kids to be proud of this city, and of all the cool people and great attractions that are in it.

Which brings us back to Sam, the 11-year-old Grade 6 student who invited me to help the class sing the praises of a city that all too often takes itself for granted.

For the record, before I got a chance to chat with Sam and the other kids, I had to tell them the long and stupid story of how I turned my left arm into Jell-O.

While chasing my dogs, I got my arm stuck in a wrought-iron trellis on my porch. I then had to be rescued by a blind neighbour and her one-legged dog.

As I worked my way through this long-winded tale, Sam agreed to portray the iron trellis, and I must say he really brought that inanimate object to life.

“Ewwww!” is what the kids said when I explained how the incident left me with an arm that resembled a large snake that had been beaten to death with a golf club.

The thing is, I assumed that Sam had sent me the handwritten invitation at the urging of his teacher, but it turns out it was his idea to ask me to help out with their alphabet guide.

It seems, despite being a hip young member of the social-media generation, Sam seriously loves reading the paper version of the Free Press.

“From the paper, you get more information,” he pointed out.

“It’s better than just watching on TV. I think more people should read the paper.”

Which is when I started wishing I had a medal to pin on Sam’s chest, and that feeling only intensified when I asked the little guy why he and his classmates think Winnipeg needs to do more to polish its self-image.

“I think it’s too negative,” he told me over the din of the busy classroom.

“We should make more really good landmarks in Winnipeg. If we get more people to like Winnipeg, it will be a better city and we’ll get more people coming here.”

What’s so cool about Winnipeg?

“Winnipeg gets warm and it gets cold,” Sam said, quickly warming to the topic.

“You get all four seasons. Egypt doesn’t get winter and snow, so we’re lucky that we can experience it.

“And everybody here is nice to each other. It’s a GREAT city to live in!”

To which I can only say: play it again, Sam. Play it again!

doug.speirs@freepress.mb.ca