TEAL UP for Military Kids

WHAT IS TEAL UP?
April 28th is Teal Up Day! Teal Up is a Canadian initiative which recognizes Canadian Military Children and their resiliency during Month of the Military Child. Unlike most children, military families are on the move, with children
having to leave schools, activities and friends behind. Family members can be absent long periods of time for deployments, training and exercises.
Despite all challenges, military children continue to flourish and succeed. This resilience deserves a moment of recognition to honour all children of the military community. We encourage everyone to wear teal on April 28th to show military children we know they are strong and resilient. Teal Up for military kids! #tealup

Teal Up day is April 28th. This campaign started April 2021 in Shilo, Manitoba. Shilo Military Family Resource Center Youth Programs heads Shannon Chapman (Youth Programs Coordinator) and Stephanie Laviolette (Youth Programs Facilitator) were brainstorming new and innovative ways to celebrate Month of the Military Child. In the process, they came across “Purple Up” a popular celebration for recognizing how resilient military children are in the United States. This is what sparked Stephanie Laviolette’s idea for Teal Up, a celebration day for Canadian military children. Both felt it was important that Canadian military children have their own day to celebrate as they should be proud to be a military child! The colour teal was chosen because the colour includes all branches of the Military (Blue for Air Force, Green for Army and Blue/White for Navy).

THE PLAN
Last year, military children wore their Teal Up tee-shirts and tied teal-coloured ribbons to fences as a visual recognition and solidarity. In Shilo (where Teal Up began) on Teal Up day military youth came together in celebration. This resulted in local media and outside organization attention. Also created was Facebook awareness boarders and other media advertisement encompassing awareness and education. The event was accepted with excitement and enthusiasm by 400 local youth.

This year, the hope is for this event to outreach across Canada not only to recognize military children but also to spread awareness.


We would like you to:

• Encourage everyone in your organization to wear teal on April 28th, 2022
• Tie a piece of teal ribbon along fences as a visual representation of support.
• Attend the evening Teal Up celebration on April 28th in Shilo
• Attend the Teal Up parade the morning of April 28th
• Take lots of photos and tag #TealUp and your local MFRC