Tartan Day raises $3918.35 for the Sick Kids Foundation.

Guilermo Del Toro

Monster master Guilermo Del Toro attends the Tartan Day dance at the Fairmont.
Biography

CP24 Breakfast Show

I had a fabulous morning at the CP24 Breakfast studio's with presenters Gurdeep Ahluwalia and Pooja Handa. All the team were fully on-board with Tartan Day and really helped promote the Sick Kids Foundation. 

I arrived at the studio's around 8:30am, where I met up with the Nancy Richards from the Nancy Richards School of Highland Dancers and Ann & Steve from WeeDanMusic, who were also going to take part in the morning show. Sandra from the RSCDS turned up around 9:15 to perform some Scottish dancing.

I bought 2 of my Campbell kilts, including sporran, socks, flashes and even a sgian dubh, for the presenters to wear on the show - luckily both were my waist size. Presenter Gurdeep Ahluwalia and weather presenter Jamie Gutfreund, were brilliant and took to wearing the kilts. If you had watched the breakfast, you would have seen how much fun the presenters had during the show.

I spoke a little about kilts, Tartan Day and the Sick Kids Foundation and then it was stevie's tern to let Gurdeep Ahluwalia have a go on the pipes and play for the dancers.

Outside filming with the presenters

Photo of the girls from the Nancy Richards School of Highland Dancers (below)

Photo fo the RSCDS dancers

The CP24 Studio's

CP24 Breakfast Show

The CP24 Breakfast Show (part of CTV) will be broadcasting Tartan Day from the studio's in Toronto.
More details to be posted, but should be fun.
http://www.cp24.com/

Ramases Pipe Band

The Ramases Pipe Band in Toronto, have kindly offered to play at the Fairmont Royal York. At the moment, I am not sure of the numbers, but will keep you posted.

Website: rameses-shriners.ca

Sponsor me for Tartan Day

Sponsor me for Tartan Day.

If you are unable to make this years Tartan Day, there is another way of helping me raise money for Sick Kids Foundation.

During the run-up to Tartan Day, I will be walking the streets of Toronto in my kilt and showing off my winter white legs. Not only will this raise awareness of Tartan Day, but it will help me raise additional money. If you want to make a donation of any amount, please go to the link, where you can deposit money directly to the Foundation.

Apart from walking around Toronto in a kilt, I needed to advertise the event, so had some t-shirts made up. If you see me walking around, please say hello.

Sponsorship

I am pleased to announce, as from today, that the Sons of Scotland have sponsored several key elements of this event. With their generous support, I am now able to give all the proceeds to the Sick Kids Foundation. http://www.sonsofscotland.com/

Tartan Day 2012

Preparations begin for Tartan Day 2012.

This will be the second year for Tartan Events in Toronto and this year, I am raising money for the Sick Kids Foundation. I encourage everyone to join us for a fun evening of Scottish dancing. 

The RSCDS and the Nancy Richards School of highland dancing, have once again agreed to participate in this years event. I have a fantastic hall for dancing, with the hope of seeing lots of new faces, eager to have a go at Scottish dancing.

Fairmont Royal York Hotel

The doors will open at 7:30pm, finishing at midnight. Entry is $20.00 with all the profits going to the Sick Kids Foundation.

There will be lots of dancing with demonstrations by the RSCDS, Nancy Richards School of Highland Dancers and hopefully a pipe band. The pipe band will confirmed in my next blog.

Tartan Day 2011

The Big Event - Tartan Day 2011 at Casa Loma

Photographs

Tartan Day was finally here, it is 6 in the morning, at Casa Loma.

The TV crew were the first to arrive and given a plan of events. Everyone turned up on time, ready to give their individual performances. 

Big thanks going out to all the performers and spectators from The Paris Dover Pipe Band, Royal Scottish Country Dance Society, The Nancy Richards School of Highland Dancers, Burnett Struth Kilts.

Nancy Richards School of Highland Dancers
(Demonstrating the Highland Fling)

Nancy Richards School of Highland Dancers.

Gord from the Paris Dover Pipe Band speaking to

TV Presenter, Nalini. 

Members of the RSCDS

Members of the RSCDS

Paris Dover Pipe Band.

Nalini trying out a large bass drum.

Left: Promoter, Dale Foulser with Camerman? and Nalini

More pictures can be found at Snap




The Tartan Day Dance at
The Great Hall on Queen Street

A ceilidh (kaylee) dance was held at the Great Hall on Friday 8th April to help promote Tartan Day and to encourage new people to have a go at Scottish dancing. Special thanks going out to our dance instructor Vicky, who was our caller for the evening. 

Here are some photographs of the event. 

Some easy Ceilidh dancing at the Great Hall.

RSCDS dancing helping with the dancing.

Piper - Devin.

Promoter - Dale Foulser with Piper, Devin.

Hope to see you for Tartan Day 2012.

Tartan Day Toronto 2011

Tartan Day at Toronto's majestic castle, Casa Loma.

The planning of Tartan Day.

When I found out Tartan Day was not being celebrated in Toronto, I immediately got to work to make this happen. There had been attempts to celebrate this day, but I wanted this to be on a grander scale. With only 5 weeks remaining until the big day, it was going to be a big task to make this event happen and would test my abilities in event planning. As a new immigrant to Canada, I wanted to create something free and to reach out to Canadian Scots in Toronto.

After contacting the major television stations in Toronto, CP24 Breakfast Producer Jason Campbell, expressed an interest in airing this event. This was great news, but I now had to find a venue, which could hold about 200 people and have the space to dance.

You wouldn't believe how many places I contacted and how many placed wanted to charge me $2000 for giving them 10 minutes of airtime on the No1 breakfast show. They should have been the ones giving me the money and couldn't believe the cheek!!

Anyway, it all started to fall into place, when I received a call from the Marketing Manager for Casa Loma. Providing I could secure the breakfast show, Casa Loma was prepared to host Tartan Day and give me full use of this spectacular venue.

Ok, I now had a venue, tv coverage, 3 weeks and no performers. The breakfast show, would have 4 slots dedicated to Tartan Day, from 7am to 9am. The idea was to have a talk about Tartan Day, the Maple Leaf tartan, to perform some Scottish and highland dancing and have a large pipe band.

After many phone calls and emails, the following groups had agreed to participate in Tartan Day. Casa Loma would open it's doors at 6.30am and everybody would need to be in place by 7am.

The RSCDS (Royal Scottish Country Dance Society - Toronto Branch) agreed to a demonstration dance and to encourage their members to attend the event.

The Nancy Richards School of Highland Dancers, agreed to bring down a large group of girls and perform the highland fling and sword dance.

The Paris Dover Pipe Band, agreed to bring down 18 members to play for one of the segments. Not only were the band members give up their time, but they also had to travel very early in the morning and obtain a bus to transport their equipment.

Burnett Struth Kilts from Barrie, were to talk about the maple leaf tartan and to demonstrate how kilts were made.

The support and commitment given by all the groups was fantastic and gave me confidence in making this day work.

Everything was now set, apart from the advertising, which meant time on the computer, contacting various groups, newspapers and free internet sites, that would inform local people in the GTA.

Maple Leaf Tartan becomes Canada's official symbol

The Canadian government announced on Wednesday 9th March 2011, that the Maple Leaf Tartan has become an official symbol of the country.

As a kind of plaid designed in 1964 by David Weiser in anticipation of the 100th anniversary of Confederation in 1967, the tartan had been Canada's unofficial national tartan for many years.

It's worn by some military pipe bands and was featured in some costumes at the closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics held in Vancouver last year.

The four colors of the tartan reflect the colors of the maple leaf as it changes through the seasons--green in the spring, gold in the early autumn, red at the first frost, and brown after falling.

"The Maple Leaf Tartan has been worn proudly and enjoyed by Canadians for decades, but has never been elevated to the level of an official symbol-until now," Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages James Moore said in a communique.

Tartan Day Toronto 2012

History of Tartan Day in Canada

Tartan Day is celebrated in Canada every year on the 6th April - Tartan Day celebrates Scottish heritage in Canada

Tartan Day is celebrated in Canada on April 6th and has become a yearly event. The concept of "Tartan Day" began at a meeting of the Federation of Scottish Clans in Nova Scotia on 9th March 1986. Members Bill Crowell and Jean MacKeracher-Watson put forward the following motion to the Federation:

"That we establish a day known as 'Tartan Day'. This to be a day chosen to promote Scottish Heritage by the most visible means. The wearing of the Scottish attire, especially in places where the kilt is not ordinarily worn, i.e.: work, play or worship."

Started originally as "Tartan Day in Nova Scotia'," Jean Watson approached every provincial Legislative Assembly in Canada, as well as other Scottish-cultural societies across Canada, to help get such a date established.

After ten years of work, Tartan Day in Canada was approved in every Provincial Assembly from sea to sea by Premier's proclamation or Members' Bill, the last being in the National Assembly at Québec City, where it was finally proclaimed in December 2003 -- 16 years after it the first such proclamation in Nova Scotia.

As background, the Scots went through years of humiliation, their rental lands taken from them, stripped for 36 years of ttieir language, music, and tartans, under penalty of death or deportation, 250,000 Scots left their homeland, many in duress, to settle in 'the Colonies'. Upon arriving in Canada, many went into bondage to help support themselves and their families. Mocked for their language and mannerisms, the Scottish determination to succeed proved undauntable.

In response, they established schools for both boys and girls, churches, towns, engaged in import and export industries, succeeded in mining, fishing, lumbering and the railways, and rose in political accomplishments from their humble beginnings.

April 6th in Scotland is the date of the signing of the Declaration of Arbroath in 1320, which states in part:

"...It is in truth, not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom -- for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself..."

In Canada, Tartan Day, April 6th, Canadians are encouraged to wear tartan in commemoration of the contributions of Scots and their descndants to the fabric of our society. Tartan Day demonstrates how one can rise above hardships and cruelty with faith in God, determination and dedication.