February 12th is the birthday of Charles Darwin, and “Darwin Day” is a global celebration of science and reason. This will be the 5th celebration in Saskatoon and the 3rd year that the Saskatchewan Minister of Education has recognised February 12 as Darwin Day in Saskatchewan!

The University of Saskatchewan Freethought Alliance, Saskatoon Skeptics and Centre for Inquiry Saskatchewan are proud to host the annual Darwin Day celebration in Saskatoon on February 12 from 7-10 pm.

Come and help us celebrate Darwin’s 205th birthday with 2 presentations followed by discussions. Speakers this year are paleontologist Frank McDougall and biologist Tracy Marchant. Tracy Marchant’s talk, “The Animal Tree of Life”, will focus on the changes in our understanding of evolution, particularly of vertebrates, since Darwin’s time.  Frank McDougall will speak on how the geography of the Cypress Hills Uplands area affected the flora and fauna in that area.

Birthday cake and coffee will be available and the Museum of Natural Sciences is nearby for touring and working on a scavenger hunt.

Schedule of Events (subject to change):

6:30 pm Doors open

7:00 pm Introduction & 1st Presentation

8:15 pm Birthday Cake & Coffee; Museum Touring

8:45 pm 2nd Presentation

10:00 pm Pub Discussion (anyone interested can join us for further discussion & cheer – at nearby Alexander’s Restaurant)

You are welcome to attend all or any part of the event.

Donations are welcome and appreciated. Suggested donation: $10 (not required). Charitable donations to the Centre for Inquiry Saskatchewan are eligible for a tax receipt if contact information is provided.

Come out for an evening celebrating science!

If you are not familiar with campus, please have a look at this map.
Here are some parking suggestions that are near the biology building. Most should have a maximum of $4.00 to park there in the evening.

• Lot 5 beneath Agriculture Building
• Lot 1 across from Place Riel
• Lot 8 by Physics
• F lot beside the education building
• G lot behind Thorvalson
• Meters will cost $1/hr with a 4 hour maximum

We are looking for volunteers to help with the following tasks:

1) Putting up posters – ASAP

2) Event set-up – 6:15pm Feb 12
3) Event assistance (e.g. door greeter, sales table, display table, speaker contact at event) – during event Feb 12
4) Event clean-up – 9:45-10:15pm Feb 12 (some may be done during the last lecture, so that we can get out and to the pub discussion promptly;)

Please email Kendra if you are able to help out in any way.

Click here or use the link below to sign up, and join our team, Centre for Inquiry Saskatoon – FBB:

http://my.e2rm.com/TeamPage.aspx?TSID=365108&langPref=en-CA

If you can’t join us at the walk, you can sponsor one of our team members to help us reach our goal.  Thank you for choosing to make a difference!

More Information:

Each fall, in communities all across the US and Canada, thousands of participants raise funds for vital, lifesaving research and patient services and, on these special nights, they carry illuminated balloons to show the support of a caring community.

Light the Night walkers raise funds and walk as individuals or on a team with friends, family and co-workers.

This year, for the first time ever, freethought, atheist, skeptic, and secular humanist groups are coming together as one unified team to pool our efforts and become the first team in LLS history to raise $1,000,000 in its first year.

Our team is Foundation Beyond Belief (FBB) and we need you to help this worthwhile cause by joining the walk or donating.

How will we ever raise $1,000,000?!?!?!

A million dollars is a LOT of money, but we have a not-so-secret weapon: the Stiefel Freethought Foundation has pledged to match every dollar we raise up to $500,000! As an extra incentive, the top fundraising teams will have the opportunity to direct up to $5,000 in SFF grants, with half going to a local qualifying freethought nonprofit and the rest to qualifying FBB Allies of their choice, such as CFI. (More information about the incentive program can be found here.)

This is a great opportunity to rally behind something big that reflects our shared values: the healing power of scientific research, education, and compassionate patient care. Please sign up and join all of us in the fight against cancer.

The International Day of Reason is used to inject reason and rational thought into actions and behaviours. It was started as a National Day of Reason in response to the US National Day of Prayer. Rather than praying (which has been shown to have no effect in all properly designed studies i.e. double blind placebo studies), we will do something that has a measurably positive effect: saving lives. To do our part, we will be having a group blood donation through Canadian Blood Services. We will meet at the downtown blood clinic starting at 5:30pm (and appointments continuing for about an hour). For those who can’t make it at that time, please book an appointment that will work for your schedule any time that day or within a week of it and let us know to count it in this blood drive. We encourage everyone eligible to donate every 56 days.

The Saskatoon Freethinkers is a Partner for Life (partner ID number: SASK010719), which means we’ve committed to donating a minimum number of units of blood. Most of the donations will occur separately, but we’re doing this one as a group donation, which will hopefully prompt some of our members to become regular donors. You will only be counted as a member of our group if you register online or at the clinic with our partner ID (SASK010719). If you are already a member with another partner you can have just this one donation count toward our group by providing the number at the clinic. To preregister as part of our freethinkers partner group online, go to the Partners for Life section of the website.