Meet Canoo member Shameka and her family.

As a new Canadian citizen, Shameka believes that active citizenship is an important practice. “Active citizenship means to me getting involved in your community no matter how small the activity may be,” explains Shameka. “[For example,] sitting on a parent council at your kids school or volunteering to go in and speak about your career for career day or donating to your local food bank. It doesn’t have to be something elaborate; it just has to be something that has an impact on others and making a difference in their lives.”

“The best place I’ve visited using Canoo was Telus Spark Science Centre,” says Shameka, “We visited on a Statutory Holiday and it was a bit crowded but my kids had an awesome time… for once my 5 year old didn’t complain that he was bored and actually didn’t want to leave! It felt so good watching my kids explore the centre and ask questions about how things worked, [even] competing with each other in operating the simple machines. I have never seen them that engaged before. Now we have a membership for the centre. Canoo afforded my family the opportunity to visit some places that we would not have thought about visiting and we totally enjoyed the experience!”

Shameka thinks that cultural places “help people to have a deeper appreciation and understanding of different cultures and this leads to persons feeling more connected and comfortable in society.”