In order to make the newcomers feel welcome, the town of O’Leary will be putting up banners with photos of recent newcomers on 12 light poles on Main Street. Town officials said this initiative is all about diversity and inclusiveness and that their goal is to show that O’Leary is welcoming everyone.
Judy MacIsaac, the town councilor who came up with this idea, stated:
“O’Leary has always prided itself on being a welcoming community. We have lots of people moving here from Ontario and B.C., but we also have newcomers from foreign countries like India, Vietnam, we have a Filipino community here and they are all moving into our town. So we’d like to make them feel more welcome. They’ll see that they are a part of the town.”
Judy Maclsaac stated that the town will cover half of the expenses of this project and that the other half will be supported by the province’s community revitalization program. A local photographer will be helping with the project by taking photos of newcomers, editing them and then posting them on poles.
The diversity banners should be up by June and will stay up until fall.
