Across the city on June 15, Calgarians came together to find their commonalities and to celebrate what it is that binds them together—shared community.
Saturday was the 11th annual Neighbour Day in the city, which was started after the 2013 southern Alberta flood, and over the past decade has been a cultural touchstone for the start of summer in the city.
Dozens of community associations, cultural groups, and business improvement areas held their own Neighbour Day celebrations, and each in unique and interesting ways that reflected the character of their community.
In Kensington, artist Aly Tucker, best known for her murals throughout the city, led visitors in the BIA’s celebrations through a communal art project.
“It’s almost like a paint-by-numbers sort of thing: people pick a colour, they find the spot they want to fill in, and the hope is, by the end of the day, everyone will have contributed to filling up the painting and sort of a fun community project,” she said.
“Public art is super fun, but I feel like it’s not necessarily super accessible to everyone to be able to participate in. So I wanted to do something that little kids could do, adults could do, and I’ve had a couple of senior citizens do it as well. We wanted to do something that was like fun and easy for everyone to participate in.”
Finding Neighbours in sport
From northwest Calgary to southwest, the Calgary Croatia Sports Club met at Limericks Traditional Public House to watch the Croatia vs. Spain matchup during the UEFA Euro 2024 Championship.
Club President Tony Damjanovic said that for the Croatian community, it was extremely important to continue to maintain their cultural heritage through shared events like watching football matches, and through Neighbour Day.
“We’ve got a few different groups here in Calgary that gets together. We’ve got a dance group, we’ve got the soccer sports club here. So any opportunity we have to bring people together so we can celebrate our heritage is awesome. The beautiful thing is it’s not even just about being Croatian,” he said.
“We’ve got eight teams right now in Calgary, and I would say about 75 per cent of the players that play for us are not Croatian, but you have half of them here today. We’re in Croatian checkers because we’ve all become friends. We’ve all become family.”
He said that was exactly the spirit of Neighbour Day.
“A lot of us come from different backgrounds, different cultures, different parts of the city. We all come together to celebrate one thing, sport. And you know, right now it’s Croatia, and there’s other times that we get together and we celebrate other things,” Damjanovic said.
“As much as we are the Calgary Croatia Sports Club, it’s a broader Calgary community that’s not just Croatian. It’s all about keeping this close knit group together and having a good time.”
And although Croatia did lose to Spain, 3–0, Damjanovic said that it was about having beers, cheering for their team, and not letting one loss get them down.
“Win or lose that’s the beauty of this culture and this sport in general. Fans are fans of the team, whether they lose or win. So we’re going to be cheering, having a good time, and celebrating the rest of the Euro with whoever… but it better be Croatia,” he said.
From water crisis to water crisis on Neighbour Day
The community of Sunnyside held its 11th annual Neighbour Day parade, which has now for a decade celebrated the resilience of that community, which was at the forefront of the 2013 flood.
Mike Jones, the parade marshal for the Sunnyside Parade and self-titled Captain Sunnyside, said that the community coming together means a lot to him as someone who moved to the community eight years ago.
He said that it was important that every year the parade starts at “crisis cafe,” on the corner of 5 Street and 7 Avenue NW where community members gathered throughout the flood to discuss volunteer opportunities and plan recovery efforts.
“This parade is different than any other kind of parade you’ll ever see, because we do not want spectators. If you’re watching us, you’re doing it wrong. We want you to be part of the parade, and we want you to be part of the community,” Jones said.
“Everybody belongs in this community, and you all belong in the middle in front of the cameras so everybody can see you.”
Jones said that same spirit of togetherness has still been in action throughout the current water crisis in the city, with community members coming together to share tips and provide support to conserve water.
“In fact Christy… a really great community member, is spreading information on what kind of soaps you can use in your water to collect that gray water, so that’s not going to kill your plants when you use that water to water your plants,” Jones said.
Another community member has been collecting water from the Bow River to help water some of the plants in the community, he said.
“We’ve had a lot of great posts on the Sunnyside Up community facebook group page talking about the wonder of rain barrels. Rain barrels that we’ve been using for years, and now we’re proving the utility.”
Calgary Mountain View MLA Kathleen Ganley, who represents the community of Sunnyside, said that she attended the parade because it has been an amazing event year after year.
“I love the sense of community coming together, and I think it captures the positive that came out of the tragedy that was the floods. Then that positive is that everyone banded together, we were all in it together, we did for one another, and I think that that is the most important thing about the spirit of this entire community,” she said.
We’ll see Calgarians together again
On the current water crisis, Ganley said that she thinks that Calgarians will band together again.
“Obviously, I’m not as well versed as some of the municipal politics, but I think we have seen Calgarians pulling together to reduce consumption, and I think we’ll probably see that again. That’s very much in the spirit of this day,” she said.
Ward 7 Councillor Terry Wong said that his discussions with community associations, including during his visit to the Bowness Neighbour Day event, had been around the issue of water use during the Bearspaw water main crisis.
“When we talked about Neighbour Day, we talked about how communities come together to help homeowners through their water restrictions. And now of course, we know that we’ve got a few more coming in a few more areas,” he said.
“The pipe needs to be repaired, and we’re all getting out there and saying ‘hey guys, this is helping communities helping each other.’ People have come to Bowness, and now we need to go to the next area and help the other people… [in] which areas will be affected, and hopefully we can keep it to a minimum.”
He said that overall he appreciates that Calgary is the sort of city that welcomes people into communities.
“Calgary’s is the third most diverse city across Canada, and you take a look at the newcomers that coming in, they’re coming from all parts of the world. I was at University Heights this morning and met a group of people from Ukraine, and also surprisingly, some people from Mexico as well,” he said.
“They really appreciate the fact that Calgary is the sort of city that welcomes people. There’s none of this segregation of barriers that keep them separated. So our newcomers appreciate what we do, and that’s the great spirit of Calgary.”
More photos from the Sunnyside parade
