Christmas ornaments made out of recycled copper roofing from Parliament Hill will bring a touch of history – and the Peace Tower – to Christmas trees this holiday season.
The Christmas Exchange and Arc Industries of Ottawa have teamed up to produce Christmas ornaments picturing the Peace Tower and the Christmas star for sale in the capital region.
“I think that the design is very inventive,” says Marilyn Matheson, executive director of the Christmas Exchange. “It uses the Peace Tower from the Parliament Buildings so it goes very well with the fact that the ornament contains copper from the roof of the Parliament Buildings.”
The design for the ornaments was chosen through an online competition in which the public voted on the top three designs.
Artist Anna Blauveldt’s ornament idea won.
“It was very successful. It more than met what we were hoping it would do,” says Matheson.
The ornaments will go on sale for $25 each in December with the proceeds going towards the Christmas Exchange’s food hamper and voucher programs.
“We’ve been working on this idea for over a year now,” says Matheson. “We’ve been looking for inventive ways to raise more funds for the work that we do.”
Arc Industries is a non-profit business that employs people with developmental disabilities. The copper was donated in 1996 and they are now in charge of cutting the circular pieces of copper for the ornaments, as well as packaging the final product.
“It’s a win-win for everybody,” says Bob Graziano, who is in charge of the copper at Arc Industries.
The ornaments can be pre-ordered at www.christmas-exchange.com or at any Hallmark/Davis store in Ottawa, including the Rideau Centre location. They will also be available in stores on Dec. 1 – if there are any left.
“We are almost sold out with pre-sales of a product that hasn’t even been produced yet,”says Matheson. “We’re hoping to maybe get a few more manufactured because we had originally 1,000 ornaments and we’re over 900 right now, pre-sold.”
The Christmas Exchange hopes the ornaments will ease their fundraising efforts during the upcoming holiday season.
Last year the organization raised enough money to meet the needs of the community, but Mathesonsays they did so later than they had planned.
“We’re hoping we will have the money beforehand, and know how much money we have, in order to start helping families earlier,” she says.