Community. It’s an essential part of our lives. We support our community, and it supports us and our families. On April 22, our IUPAT members, including commercial painters, glaziers, drywall tapers, hazmat technicians, stucco workers and other allied tradespersons will celebrate our neighborhoods on National Community Day.
We’ll join our like-minded brothers and sisters throughout North America, all of us working as one to take action. Ontario is only one of many regions where workers in the trades will give back, just as we’ve done in the past.
What have we tackled as a collective whole over the past few years? We’ve re-painted homeless shelters, worked with kids and replaced broken windows in local facilities. The sky is really the limit when it comes to using job skills to impress our commitment to community.
In 2017, across Ontario, we’ll make our voices heard through our actions. How will you help? It’s not too late to make a difference! Just contact your local union office and get started. Then, encourage your coworkers to do something integral to your community such as:
- Cleaning up a local park or field where kids play. Who wants trash in the way during a game of pick-up basketball or sand lot baseball?
- Renovating a hangout for individuals and families. Many of these centres are in disrepair. Your skills could change them for the better and make them safer places to commune.
- Helping a veterans’ services gathering space by sprucing it up. A few cans of paint can go a long way.
- Holding fundraisers in support of nonprofits. Donations are always appreciated from organisations that operate on lean budgets and support members of the community.
Notes Bruno Mandic, Business Manager of the IUPAT, “We’ve been blessed as workers to have wonderful jobs and great colleagues. April 22nd offers us a rare opportunity to band together and do something that will have incredible meaning. It’s a privilege and honor for us to engage in service for the good of everyone in our communities.”
