Rights of children celebrated during National Child Day

By Justin Seward - Lethbridge Herald on November 22, 2022.

Herald photo by Justin Seward Josh Middeleton and daughter Nicole learn more about the Building Brains Together organization at the National Child Day celebration at Lethbridge College on Saturday.

Lethbridge Plays in conjunction with 20 child and youth-centered community organizations celebrated National Child Day at Lethbridge College on Saturday.

The day is celebrated right across the nation in recognition of the United Nations Declaration of Rights of the Child.

The day celebrated building community awareness and respect for the rights of children and youth, as well as connecting families with community resources available to them in Lethbridge.

“What it is, is bringing together all different organizations in the community, we have about 20 organizations here that are sharing their services and programs with families that come to this celebration,” said Vicki Hazelwood, Lethbridge Plays co-chair. “So families are getting an opportunity to learn what’s available in our community and then also play. So each organization is offering an activity, a playful activity, that they’re engaging in and this is all under the umbrella of Lethbridge Plays.”

Hazelwood said we want to celebrate play and encourage families to play.

“Because we know it’s very foundational for healthy human development,” she said.

The United Nations established children’s rights over 30 years ago and the event wanted to bring awareness to that.

“And remind people that children and youth do have rights and we need to honour and respect those in our community,” said Hazelwood.

One of the key messages out of the day for families to take with them when they walked out the door was play is important, play is valuable and play is a right of children.

Hundreds of people attended the National Child Day celebration.

“I think we want to bring out more community partners,” said Hazelwood. “So that they have an opportunity if there are other community partners that aren’t there this time, we want them to come next time and have a table and have an activity to offer families so they can learn about their services. And then also we want more community to come (for) just the awareness of the event and for more people to come out and celebrate National Child Day.”

Although celebrated on Saturday in Lethbridge, the official National Child Day was on Sunday.