Sudbury Star

'I want to be a hero'

Kaitlyn, a Grade 4 student at Redwood Acres Public School, and Deacon, a Grade 3 student, sat enthralled in the darkened bus as a short film of the Holocaust was presented.

The two students were part of a cohort of Redwood Acres students who took in the Tour for Humanity, a travelling bus tour aimed at raising awareness of the Holocaust, the hatred that precipitated it, and the bullying that still takes place on school yards and in classrooms.

"It was good," Kaitlyn said. "We learned about new things. I learned that Hitler didn't like Jewish people. It's rude he made them be slaves."

Deacon seconded Kaitlyn's views.

"It was cool, because I didn't know there were heroes that were that good," he said.

As well as learning of that dark period in history, students were also introduced to luminaries and some of the heroes of humankind -- Helen Keller, Martin Luther King Jr., Harriet Tubman, Anne Frank and Simon Wiesenthal.

The bus walls were adorned with quotes and stories from some of those who have inspired great action, including Canada's own Terry Fox. He was an inspiration to little Deacon, who said he would like to work with people suffering from cancer.

"I want to be a hero because you can help a lot of people and it's nice to help others," he said. "I want to help people who have cancer."

In addition to teaching students about the Holocaust, the bus tour is aimed at eradicating bullying. Kaitlyn said she recently stood up for her cousin, who was being bullied on the soccer field by another child.

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Sudbury.com

‍A lesson in humanity

Tour for Humanity rolls into Sudbury, uses the holocaust to teach children about hate and intolerance.

‍Students at Redwood Acres Public School got a lesson in humanity on May 5.

The Tour for Humanity, a 30-seat, wheelchair accessible, state-of-the-art, technologically advanced mobile human rights education centre rolled into town with one goal: to inspire people of all ages and backgrounds. 

While the holocaust lays the foundation for the tour, the overarching goal for younger audiences is to empower them to raise their voices and take action against hate and intolerance, bullying and to promote justice and human rights, said Daniella Lurion, education associate, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, and co-ordinator for Tour for Humanity.

Since its launch in 2013, the Tour for Humanity has visited more than 300 schools across Ontario and provided invaluable lessons on tolerance, human rights and justice to more than 60,000 students and educators.

“We're based in Toronto, and we want to be able to bring our message to communities that can't come to us,” Lurion said. 

The presentation touches on some of history's most notable humanitarians, such as Harriet Tubman, Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and most recently, Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani teenager who stood up to the Taliban and defended her right to an education. She was shot in the head as a result, but survived and is now a much stronger voice, even being named the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate.

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