Tuesday at Tupper Street South, by the Trinity Church, was a small gathering of people placing their handprints in orange paint on the nearby sidewalk and steps of the Church. It's an effort to pave the way home for children.

Portage Ask Auntie coordinator Robbie Longclaws was there and outlines the cause.

"Today, we're making orange handprints to commemorate all the children that were in residential schools -- the ones that made it home, the ones that didn't make it home, and the ones yet to be found," says Longclaws. "We're doing this all over Portage la Prairie and around the daycare schools along Crescent Lake."

She says everyone from small children to adults have been involved.

"Anybody that wants to come out and paint and do their hands up for their own feelings, they can come on out any time," continues Longclaws. "I usually put a little post up on Facebook to let them know when and where we're going to because we move around all over the place. We're doing this for the next two weeks up until about October 8th. Around October 4th, we'll be doing the red hands as well for the missing and murdered, and it's open for everybody. We're hoping to get 6,000-plus handprints and pave the way home for these children."

Golden West reporter Mike Blume laying a handprintPortage Ukrainian Nursery School director Lori Carpenter was there, as well, and says the handprints are quite meaningful.

"I think it's really impactful for people to see this because it hits home and makes you think how small that the children were when they were taken from their families," says Carpenter. "When you see the little handprints in so many of them, you just realized how tiny they were when they were taken from their families. And we need to be aware of that. People need to know that that happened and to recognize how wrong that was."

From Monday until Tuesday at about 10:30 a.m., there had been 1,027 handprints placed, with 295 near Trinity Church. Longclaws says they hope to get at least 6,000 in the next two weeks.