After all the recent controversy about a new tagline for the City of Peterborough, reader Pat Maitland brought this unique welcome sign in Peterborough to our attention.
The hand-painted sign is installed on the lawn at 480 George Street, on the corner of George and Princess Streets one block north of Lansdowne and right across the street from Big Brothers and Big Sisters Peterborough.
The top board says “No matter where you are from, we’re glad you’re here!” in English and the remaining boards list the word “Welcome” in 11 languages: Spanish, Hebrew, Danish, German, Swahili, Arabic, Hindi, English, French, Ojibwe, and Chinese.
Since first publishing this story, kawarthaNOW has learned that Gloria and Chris Proctor-Bennett created the sign and installed it on Canada Day.
On her Facebook page, Gloria posted a photo of the sign and wrote “Our not-so-subtle statement of solidarity with immigrants and Indigenous people in a city with way too many racist incidents.”
Gloria says the sign is loosely based upon a lawn sign that the Mennonite Central Committee distributes.
“It is important to us to do what we can to make Peterborough a more welcoming community,” Gloria writes in a comment on our story. “We love talking to people about it, regardless of their perspective. Feel free to knock on our door to chat. We’re quite ‘welcoming’.”
