Green Shirt Day assembly shares message of Logan Boulet’s inspiration

By Lethbridge Herald on April 5, 2022.

Herald photo by Alejandra Pulido-Guzman Bernadine Boulet speaks at Dr. Gerald Probe Elementary School Tuesday at a Green Shirt Day assembly organized by grade 2 students to talk about the importance of organ donation.

Alejandra Pulido-Guzman – Lethbridge Herald

Dr. Gerald Probe Elementary School hosted a Green Shirt Day assembly organized by grade 2 students where Bernadine Boulet talked about the importance of organ donation, inspired by her son Logan who died in the Humboldt bus tragedy.

As the 4th annual Green Shirt Day approaches on April 7, Bernadine who is a grade 2 teacher at the school seized the opportunity to be able to gather for an assembly for the first time in the last two years, to explain what organ donation is and what organs can be donated in a way that would be easy to understand for a young audience. 

“We use the organmites.ca so that we can bring that to more their level because organ donation and organ transplantation is something that might be beyond the level of these students,” said Bernadine Boulet while speaking to the media with her husband Toby. 

Green Shirt Day recognizes Logan Boulet, who decided in 2018 to register his organ and tissues, just weeks before the tragic Humboldt Broncos bus crash that took his and 15 other people’s lives on April 6, 2018.

The assembly had grade 2 students present the subject in a “news report”, where they were talking about it as breaking news. They also had a weather and sports segment. 

“Having children present to children makes it a little bit easier for their understanding,” said Bernadine. 

She said the reason why her and her husband Toby want children to learn about it at such a young age is to bring that conversation home and talk about it with their parents. 

“It becomes less intimidating for a family to talk about organ donation if it comes from the child versus a parent talking about it,” said Bernadine. 

She said they want it to be an issue that just becomes something people talk about. 

“We know that every time there’s a conversation about organ donation and the conversation about transplantation and being a registered donor, we know that there’s the likelihood of people to actually become registered donors increases and it gives hope to people who are waiting for transplants,” said Boulet. 

Toby Boulet said they are here to help people with hope, because each conversation turns into four registrations. 

“Logan spawned 300,000 registrations across Canada now, that makes 1.2 million conversations, so that is what it’s all about,” said Toby. 

Toby asked the community to come to their family skate on April 7, to commemorate Logan. 

The Family Skate organized by the Boulet Family will take place at the ATB Centre on April 7 from 4:30 p.m to 6:00 p.m. 

“Bring your skates, bring your helmet, if you don’t want to you don’t have to skate. We have squishy organs for the kids, which they get after they leave,” said Toby. 

He said it is a time for fellowship which will also be happening in Spruce Grove and Airdrie as they will also be hosting a family skate for Green Shirt Day. 

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