FLAG RAISINGS

Flag Raisings

How to arrange a childhood cancer awareness flag raising

With thanks to childhood cancer advocate Patti Bauer for providing this information and the photos! Patti is a bereaved cancer mom who has years of experience arranging proclamations and flag raisings throughout the Niagara Region.

Requesting a flag raising:

All Municipalities have a “Contact us” section on their websites, and most have a flag raising request form.
The Clerk’s department is the one to contact when in doubt or if the website is not clear.
You can request that the Municipality does a Proclamation for the month of September proclaiming September as Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.
They will inform you if there are already existing plans for a proclamation/flag raising already in place.

Sample Wording

You can use the following sample wording to contact your municipality. Please feel free to edit it with your own words to make it your own:

"My name is [insert name here] and I am a resident of [insert town/city name here]. We are the family of [insert child's name here OR explain your role in the childhood cancer community and why this matters to you] and we are requesting that the Mayor and Council of [City/Town] declare September to be Childhood Cancer Awareness month.

We want to thank all of you who are helping us to make this happen and we invite everyone to join us when we raise the flag and have the proclamation made. We will provide the flag for the raising with the condition that we get it back when it is taken down.

Please let me know if there is anything further required of us or if you need any information. Feel free to contact me at this email address. My phone number is [insert phone number] and we have a website [if you have a website or public social media page insert the link here]. Thank you in advance for your help."

At the Flag Raising

Make the flag raising personal by bringing pictures, inviting community members who have also been touched by childhood cancer, and/or “planting” gold/yellow ribbons or memorials for those children touched by cancer.
The person who would like to raise the flag can also check to see if their Municipality will allow fundraising items to be sold or donations to be collected.

Where to Get Flags

Patti has a contact who makes the flags (pictured on this page) and the cost is $100 each (they ship free throughout Ontario). For those interested in purchasing a flag, please contact us and we'll put you in touch with the supplier.

The flag can be used year after year or even lent to another family to do their flag raising in their municipality if, for example, it's on a different day/week or if your municipality won't do it one year for whatever reason.

For those who are not able to purchase a flag for themselves, OPACC may be able to provide you with one if we have enough funding available in our Flag Fund to purchase one and lend it to you. Flags can be returned to OPACC through our Parent Liaisons at SickKids/CVH, or mailed back. Contact us for more information.

Contact

Please contact OPACC at info@OPACC.org with any questions and we can get you in touch with Patti for further guidance, advice, proclamation wording, etc.

Also please let us know if your municipality is confirmed for a flag raising this September and we will add the date and location to the list below:

List of Confirmed Flag Raisings (2024)

Bowmanville: Tuesday, September 3rd at 10AM at Town Hall, 40 Temperance Street

If you would like to attend or speak at one of these events, let us know by email and we'll put you in touch with the local event organizer to get more information.