Our project was to build a community wayfinding sign, built by kids and families in our neighbourhood. The intention was to have the sign indicate distances to local landmarks, important to the kids who live here. We’re now thrilled to have a colourful signpost erected, that attracts lots of attention and brings lots of smiles.
Broadly, the project progressed as planned. We purchased supplies for the signs and let kids in the neighbourhood know what the plan was so they could start thinking about locations and find pieces of wood. We then got together for a painting day, and post set up day at the end of August. A week later, one the signs were dried and the post had set, we got back together to attach the signs to the post. We had a great turn out of kids and families show up from across the neighbhourhood – and a few families that couldn’t make it are working on signs independently to attach to blank spots after the fact. It was a great way to build community, celebrate the amazing locations throughout our community, encourage kids to think about distance and get creative. We also spent time chatting about other ideas for community-building initiatives in our community, and have a number of ideas to explore in the summers to come!
A couple things didn’t go quite as planned. Initially our plan was to indicate a few different metrics on our signs (locations, km distance away, and time it would take for a kid to walk and bike). We quickly learned there wasn’t enough space on the signs for all this information – and that being overly prescriptive with design of the signs was less fun for kids. So, we settled on a range of kms and minutes depending on kids preferences, and I think this helped keep them engaged. We also had some kids who really wanted to do further away locations that were important to them, so we introduced a few non-Haida Gwaii locations. It ended up being a great way to represent the many places around the world where kids have families and happy memories. We all learned a lot about each other and the world in the process! The only other shift was that instead of using a driftwood signpost, we ended up using a pressure treated beam and quite a bit more concrete than we initially thought we needed. It was important to make sure the post was safe and would last a long time, and that was the best way to do that.
Thank you so much to NSG for helping make our community become connected!
