On first anniversary, a borderless memorial, the fourth Site of Conscience in Canada, envisioned to honour lives of flight PS752 victims
Industry: Non Profit & Charity
Toronto, Canada (PRUnderground) December 1st, 2020
In less than 40 days, the first anniversary of the Flight PS752 tragedy, in which 176 people and an unborn child were killed by two missile strikes originating from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard in Iran, will be marked. On December 1, 2020, an international committee will launch a fundraising campaign designed to bring an innovative memorial into reality. The Flight PS752 Steering Committee (FPSC) will begin a year-long campaign to raise funds for a borderless, worldwide memorial and a physical memorial site in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Since January 8, 2020, the victims’ families and friends have searched for answers, only to find a few certainties. What is certain is that the pain each of them experiences only grows. With a crash site wrapped in political tensions, BOOOOOM, a non-profit organization in Canada and the UK, initiated plans for an innovative memorial utilizing both physical and augmented reality (AR) to honour the lives of those lost. The AR memorial will replicate the more than 6000 mementos received by memorial organizers from people around the world.
“We’re so impressed with the way [BOOOOOM] is approaching memorialization, both in a physical context and in virtual contexts,” stated Elizabeth Silkes, the executive director of the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience, in a letter to BOOOOOM, welcoming the planned memorial as the fourth Canadian site of consciousness. “We look forward to [the] ways in which your work can be enhanced and expanded by membership in the Coalition as we work together to turn memory to action.”
The first round of the fundraising campaign hopes to see CA$500,000 raised and earmarked for the digital memorial, which includes augmented reality components.
Mitacs, a Canada-wide not-for-profit organization that fosters growth and innovation by connecting organizations with academic research, joined the steering committee to support the creation of the digital memorial. Mitacs lost Dr. Forough Khadem, an employee, in the incident. The organization has already supported the creation of the Dr. Forough Khadem Scholarship at the University of Manitoba to honour her life and her work.
“Mitacs is honoured to help preserve Forough’s memory and collaborate with BOOOOOM and the Flight PS752 Steering Committee,” said Eric Bosco, chief business development officer at Mitacs. “To make the memorial a reality, we are proud to facilitate connections and help fund research with augmented reality researchers at top Canadian academic institutions. Together, we will always remember the victims of flight PS752.”
The planned physical memorial will be part of a cultural centre in Toronto and will be the fourth site of consciousness in Canada. The FPSC has already started negotiations with the City of Toronto to partner and fund the memorial and cultural centre.
“To secure the City of Toronto’s support, we need to raise at least 30 per cent of the project’s estimated costs, which means we need to raise $1 million within a year,” Panah Farhadbahman, president of FPSC, explains. “While answers about what happened that awful day have been hard to come by, unity and the need to remember the lives lost have been found in abundance. What we need now is for Canadians and people around the world to help us to bring this unique and innovative memorial to fruition so that we can remember and move forward.”
To contribute to the Flight PS752 Memorial Fundraiser, please visit https://patrons.flightps752.com.
Please follow @752memorial on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to connect with the memorial project on social media.
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