For years every holiday season, an international charity delivers thousands of shoeboxes filled with treasures and essentials to children in developing countries.
But a non-profit organization in Canada wanted to give those gifts of love and hope to children in need here in our own country.
‘I Love First Peoples’ inspires students and strangers across Canada to put together shoeboxes for kids living on reserves. Schools have signed up to fill and assemble the packages so they are ready to be delivered to Indigenous infants, toddlers and teenagers.
Indigenous educator Jamie-Dee Peterson said students at Calgary’s Nelson Mandela High School enthusiastically embraced the concept, collecting as many shoeboxes as they could.
“When you look in the classroom, you have students from every walk of life working together, walking alongside each other and getting to know more about Indigenous communities and what reconciliation is like and what it means to them,” Peterson said.
The charity started four years ago in Quebec. Its founders wanted to go beyond where it started.
Christine Berry heads up the Calgary chapter.
“They noticed that some communities had no electricity and children were going to bed in snowsuits,” Berry said. “So they started this and it took off and decided to go national.”
High school students born and raised on reserves know what it means to receive gifts from strangers.
Mimiges Francis attends Grade 11 at Nelson Mandela. She grew up on a reserve on the East Coast.
“When I was a kid, we got treat bags when my reserve released royalties, so that was a highlight,” Francis said.
She also sees the value of bridging gaps between communities.
“Growing up on a reserve, there was a prejudice from native people towards non-native people and that prejudice was reciprocated,” Francis said. “So when kids get these boxes, they can grow up knowing that we are equal.”