BRANTFORD — The Woodland Cultural Centre (WCC) set a goal to save 1000 Bricks on GivingTuesday this week.
And they met it.
Marketing and Sales Manager Layla Black said that by 3 p.m., Tuesday evening, the 1000 brick goal was met and exceeded.
“We circulated a lot of community help,” said Black. “We had a lot of community members on Facebook with large fan bases that agreed to send [the campaign] out. So we had Six Nations Polytechnic, Six Nations Tourism, Six Nations Bingo that all shared it out, and so it was really a community effort.”
Giving Tuesday Canada is a global awareness campaign following the sales of Black Friday and Cyber Monday that is meant to shift the focus back to giving. Recently, the WCC was also notified that an anonymous donor in the community offered to match all donations that came in on Tuesday.
Black said that this comes before they have begun to take the campaign to schools, which is a great start.
“We still have people coming through the door and making donations now, which is amazing,” she said.
The project, which will renovate the masonry of nearly 400,000 Bricks, will cost roughly $5 a brick and the campaign is part of Save the Evidence.
The WCC has since put the call out to individuals, schools, businesses, and organizations to help them fund the work necessary to preserve this significant space. Many Survivors have carved their names, dates of attendance, the number attributed to them at the school, and many messages into these bricks.
The WCC says that there are three ways that anyone can help:
Make a personal donation on Giving Tuesday at the Museum or online and Save as many Bricks as you can! http://woodlandculturalcentre.ca/donate.
Share the campaign to your networks.
And make a pledge to “do good” on Giving Tuesday in the name of WCC and we are entered to win an extra $5000 towards the project. Pledge online at https://woodlandculturalcentre.ca/pledge.
“Every single brick has a story,” says Carley Gallant-Jenkins, the Save the Evidence Coordinator.
The Woodland Cultural Centre is extremely grateful for the support of the Save the Evidence Campaign from our community, and emphasizes the significance of restoring the former Mohawk Institute as an interpretive learning space and a reminder of the impact of Residential Schools in Canada.
“A lot of the names on these bricks have passed away now, but it’s like they are still here,” said Geronimo Henry.
