PROMOTING CO-OPERATIVE ENTERPRISES & CELEBRATING

2012 INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF CO-OPERATIVES

CO-OPERATIVE ENTERPRISES OF CENTRAL ONTARIO (CECO) CLUSTER celebrated the 2012 International Year of Co-operatives and helped promote co-operative enterprises through the creation of an entertaining Co-operative Parade Float that was in the 2012 Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest Thanksgiving Day Parade, and the November 17 Santa Claus Parades in Kitchener-Waterloo and Cambridge.

The Viking Ship and Dragon float idea came from the Disney movie “How to Train Your Dragon”. In the movie, the Viking community and the dragons come together and work together to make their community a better place to live. Our parade float project relied on donations from the co-operative community, individuals, businesses and community organizations . $7,000 was raised to achieve our goal.

• The project was a co-operative effort and people who were not yet familiar with co-ops, learned that co-ops build a better world by empowering people, strengthening economies and sustaining communities.
• There are many types of co-ops all around us. The shields along the sides of the Viking ship, the watermarks on the 7 rainbow coloured sail, and words written in the ocean waves will tell you more.
• In Canada, there are 9,000 Co-operatives with $330 Billion in assets owned by their members?
• Co-operative enterprises also have a higher success rate for new business start ups than profit based business corporations.
• ALL Co-ops are value-based and focus on the seven (7) International Co-operative Principles:

OPEN MEMBERSHIP

DEMOCRATIC

ECONOMIC PARTICIPATION

INDEPENDENCE

EDUCATION

CO-OPERATING AMONG OTHER CO-OPERATIVES

CONCERN FOR COMMUNITY

Thank you to everyone who made a 

contribution to this 2012 IYC project.

CECO Cluster

290 King Street East, Kitchener ON N2G 2L3