Friendship Centre invites residents to fill time capsule at picnic

The Fort Erie Native Friendship Centre wants residents to bring a piece of their lives to its community picnic this month–and leave it sealed away for the future.

The centre’s children’s programs team, Team Tshikeksa, is collecting photos, small items and memorabilia for a time capsule at the Gathering in Good Ways picnic on August 22.

The donated photos and keepsakes will show what life in Fort Erie looked like in 2026. The centre recommends donating copies of photos, since items won’t be returned.

The free picnic runs from noon to 3 p.m. in the gymnasium at 796 Buffalo Road, with a barbecue, a cornhole tournament, a sundae bar and surveys that enter guests to win gift cards.

Bella Recinos Athanasas, the centre’s Indigenous mental health and wellness co-ordinator, said the afternoon is also a chance for residents to tell staff what the centre should offer next.

“We really just wanted to, as we have new board members and there’s a lot of strategic planning going on within the centre, we’re just essentially looking to get community feedback to know how to program better for our community-specific needs,” she said.

Athanasas said staff have no way to plan programs that fit the community without asking the community first.

“Firstly, I think that we really can’t do our jobs as co-ordinators, as people who work in the community, if we’re not consulting with the people that we’re trying to service,” said Athanasas.

“It’s more so like a relational check-in with people just to say, ‘Hey, we want to hear from you. Is there something that you want to see more of that maybe we did in previous years? Or does anybody have any brand new ideas that can help us create either further programming or further events?'”

Each centre team will run part of the picnic. Athanasas said her team expects to operate a lemonade stand and a strawberry juice station. Staff have talked about camp-style games, including an apple-eating contest with apples hung from strings.

The picnic will be her first since joining the centre nearly a year ago. Asked why people keep coming back, she pointed to food and gathering.

“That’s really a big part of Indigenous ways of life, is gathering,” said Athanasas. “And a lot of the times we bond over not only just the gathering piece, but the food as well, and being able to do things together.”

Residents can drop off time capsule items in the centre’s gym during the picnic on August 22.

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