Plant Murals
Next maker project: plant murals. I love succulents and the idea of making plants into wall murals.
© 2025 Celina Agaton
Me to We Style & Toronto Mini Maker Faire T-Shirt Design Contest
Maker Faire is an award winning, family friendly event celebrating technology, education, science, arts, crafts, engineering, food, sustainability, and more, in cities around the world. We’re expecting 5,000 people to attend Toronto’s Mini Maker Faire on the weekend of September 21 to 22 at Wychwood Barns.
We’re reaching out to design schools and students, and anyone who wants a chance to see their design become the official t-shirt sold at Toronto Mini Maker Faire.
We’ve partnered to produce our t-shirts with Free the Children’s sustainable clothing line, Me to We Style, who produce organic, recycled, sweatshop-free clothing made right here in Toronto, with 50% of their proceeds supporting the Free the Children.
Submissions will be accepted until midnight on Monday, August 26.
The Grand Prize:
- An Xbox party for you and your 14 friends at Microsoft Retail Store Yorkdale Shopping Centre
- Your design will be printed on the official Toronto Toronto Mini Maker Faire T-Shirt worn by staff, booth crew, volunteers, and sold to the public
- 1 Toronto Mini Maker Faire T-Shirt
- 2 VIP Weekend Passes with access to all parties without lining up and VIP lounge access
- Recognition as the contest winner at the event
- Your name, photo and design featured on Me to We Style and Toronto Mini Maker Faire’s websites, social media and press releases.
The other four finalists will receive 2 tickets to attend Toronto Mini Maker Faire.
The Toronto Mini Maker Faire Committee will select five finalists, and on Tuesday, August 27, we’re opening up the voting to the public to choose the winning design until midnight, on Friday, August 30. The winner will be announced on Tuesday, September 3.
Help us spread the word and post our contest flyer on your community board.
Hashtags: #mmfTO and for the t-shirt design contest:#mmfTOTee
Good luck!
>> We’ve announced the winner!
Georgian College Fundraising Tech Tools
Georgian College invited me to lead a session at their 2010 fundraising conference. Titled, “Getting the Most out of Your Tech Budget,” I share my three page list of free and low cost international tools like free and open source software and $10,000 Google Adwords Grants. Here’s the session description:
Now more than ever, fundraisers are looking for ways to maximize resources. Learn how new free and affordable web tools can help improve the ways you plan and organize events and learn about new resources, grants and programs that help engage and sustain funders and supporters in your community.
Toronto Non-Profit Open Data Launch
Listen to the audio recording of the event on rabble.ca
On May 5, 2009, I created an event to launch open data to the Toronto Non-Profit Community with Toronto Mayor David Miller. Toronto was one of the pioneering cities to first launch open data. I screened Us Now, a documentary on the power of the open web, and led a panel discussion with Mozilla Foundation Executive Director, Mark Surman, MaRS Discovery District Director of Social Entrepreneurship Allyson Hewitt, Family Assoc. for Mental Health Everywhere (FAME) Executive Director Christine Cooper, ChangeCamp Co-founder Mark Kuznicki, and Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI) Online Capacity Development Coordinator Marco Campana.
Open data is data that can be freely used, re-used and redistributed by anyone – subject only, at most, to the requirement to attribute and sharealike.
Lifted from the Open Data Handbook, the key benefits to open data include:
- Availability and Access: the data must be available as a whole and at no more than a reasonable reproduction cost, preferably by downloading over the internet. The data must also be available in a convenient and modifiable form.
- Re-use and Redistribution: the data must be provided under terms that permit re-use and redistribution including the intermixing with other datasets.
- Universal Participation: everyone must be able to use, re-use and redistribute – there should be no discrimination against fields of endeavour or against persons or groups. For example, ‘non-commercial’ restrictions that would prevent ‘commercial’ use, or restrictions of use for certain purposes (e.g. only in education), are not allowed.
Open data formats enable the interoperability of datasets across various operating systems, and tax payer funded research should be saved in open data format to ensure its use and access by the public.