Westminster celebrates Pink Shirt Day with matching shirts thanks to local company

On Wednesday morning, students at Westminster Elementary School celebrated Pink Shirt Day in style, thanks to a generous donation from a local company.
At a special assembly, students were all decked out in identical Pink Shirt Day shirts, courtesy of Tradesman Manufacturing Group.
Doug Mann, manager of finance for the company, explained the donation came about after Tradesman made the decision to assist a northside elementary school in celebrating the special day.
“So, we have a manager’s meeting that goes weekly and one of the managers said we should be doing something for Pink Shirt Day, and it went from there,” said Mann. “We wanted to identify a school that was on the northside, since we have a manufacturing plant on the northside.”
One of Tradesman’s employees has children that attend Westminster and with that, the partnership with the school was set in motion. Mann and his team set to work to make it all happen and, in the end, approximately 500 shirts were ordered and delivered to the school.
For Mann and the Tradesman team, Pink Shirt Day was a cause the company was eager to throw its support behind.
“It’s something that is important to a number of people at Tradesman, and it’s a Canadian phenomenon,” he said. “It started in New Brunswick and so it’s something that is particular to Canada and something that fits with the Canadian psyche.”
He added he hoped the presentation at Westminster, highlighted by Tradesman employee Orion Patoine’s reading of the book, A Little Spot of Kindness, by Diane Alber, helped inspire students.
“I'm hoping that particularly the older students - the younger ones might not quite follow it yet, do some research about what Pink Shirt Day is all about and start following the principles of it,” said Mann. “This year's logo is Spread Kindness, and the book is about what kindness really is. If the kids get that part of it, and it’s anything from saying hello to someone that’s lonely that’s sitting by themselves, or saying sorry when something goes wrong, it’s all those things that spread kindness. If they get that out of this presentation – I’m thrilled.”

Pink shirts at Westminster