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School custodian Mary Vincent from CUPE 1775 took the Colour in CUPE posters to her school workplace where teachers used them in class to talk about racism.

Theres not a lot of diversity at our school, says Vincent. This was a fun activity for the students and a great opportunity to talk about racism.

Vincent saw the colouring poster for March 21, International Day for the Elimination of Racism, last year. But, the timing was off since the day falls during the March break period for Morell Consolidated School in PEI. Vincent is one of two custodians at the school who belong to the province-wide CUPE local.

This year, her interest in Equality spurred her to look for the poster on the CUPE web site early enough to organize a colouring event at her school.

I made copies and asked a couple of the teachers if they were interested in it, she says. When the teachers said yes, she went to the class and took photos of the children with their artwork.

Really and truly, we dont have a lot of opportunity to discuss this with the kids, she says, adding that its good for children to talk about this when they are young. I told them to bring them home and to talk to their parents about it.

The kids get to understand that there are a lot of different people out there and were all the same, says Vincent. They had a great time doing it.

Pictured are children from Mrs. Campbells Grade One class.