Week of White Rose: raising funds ahead of Polytechnique massacre anniversary

The ninth edition of the Week of the White Rose at the Montreal’s Polytechnique is on until Dec. 9.

The week, which began in 2014, encourages women to pursue the field of engineering while honouring the tragic events of Dec. 6, 1989.

Since it began, more than $170,000 has been raised for Folie Technique – one of Canada’s oldest science camps.

“There’s this stigma that engineering is just for boys but really it’s not, so we have to remove the stigma from this idea that is really wrong,” said Émilie Thibault, a PhD student at Polytechnique Montreal in chemical engineering.

Folie Technique was created in 1991 as a Polytechnique student initiative that aims “to introduce children and youth to the world of science and engineering by sparking their interest and allowing them to explore their abilities — regardless of their gender, socio-economic situation or geographic location.”

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“Since we work with like mostly people around 7 to 17 years old, our goal is to reach them while they’re young and to sensibilize them to this profession and to give them an environment where they feel comfortable,” said Julie Doucet-Lamoureux, executive director of Folie Technique.

This past summer the donations raised allowed 2,160 elementary school students to attend science workshops.

“What is amazing about the camps, it’s that we really want to show how we can do engineering in everyday life to the children and how it can affect their lives. And it was really an amazing experience to see how much this children’s love activities,” said Maelle Mathieu, Folie Technique camp leader.

In 2020, 30.2 per cent of Polytechnique’s undergraduate engineering students were women – marking a historic milestone- as Quebec and Canadian averages for female engineering graduates stands just over 23 per cent.

“I’m really for, you know, teams that are really diverse, diversified. So when we have like boys and girls, like working together, this is where like the brightest idea came from actually. So for me to have this diversity is what is like, what mattered the most, and just to make every woman, like, understand that it’s accessible for them,” explained Thibault

But she hopes people will remember not to lose sight of what brought them there in the first place.

“We’re honoring the victims. You know, it’s a big loss in the engineering community because if you can just imagine, like the impact that those women would have had in our community, it’s a huge loss.”

So just, you know, talking about it, that’s what I’m going to do.

During this year’s Week of the White Rose, anyone who is willing to contribute can purchase a virtual white rose. Donations of $10 (one rose), $50 (14 roses), $200 (25 roses) or any other amount can be made on the rose blanche website.

In addition, Monday, Dec. 5, Polytechnique will be holding its eighth annual Order of the White Rose Scholarship ceremony. The invite-only event will honour an “exceptional Canadian female engineering student who chooses to pursue graduate studies. She will be awarded a $30,000 scholarship.

Lastly, Tuesday, Dec. 6, Polytechnique will lay wreaths on the commemorative plaque that honours the victims of the 1989 attack.

-With files from Sasha Teman