Trician-Renee Edwards merges entertainment and education to uplift children
January 19, 2025
Bereaved of a parent is traumatic for children.
At age four, Trician-Renee Edwards lost her Montserratian-born mother to lupus.
Becoming a medical practitioner was a career goal as she wanted to help people after witnessing her mom’s brief battle with the autoimmune disease.
“Being a pediatrician was something I was thinking about because I love children,” said Edwards who was born and raised in Scarborough. “There is something in me that organically connects with kids and it has been easy for me to work with young people.”
While volunteering in a Toronto Parks, Forestry & Recreation summer camp program, she was hired full-time.
As time passed by, Edwards dedicated much of her time to educating and entertaining children.
She founded The Love & Light Collective and a YouTube channel that incorporates everyday lessons that are tailored to building the wholesome and healthy development of children between the ages of three and 12.
“I merged entertainment with education and what I do is centred on bringing back a love for literacy,” said the Humber College Radio Broadcast and University of Toronto English and Women & Gender Studies graduate. “If you ask a child now what their favourite book is, most of them can’t provide an answer. In bringing that love for literacy, I am focusing on Black history because in my experience, I notice that when children know their history, their confidence is heightened and they tend to excel and block out things that society tells us about ourselves.”
Through custom-tailored workshops, Edwards reads books by Black authors with diverse images.
“The aim is to have children see themselves,” she noted. “We have an informal discussion about the story and then I tie in a historical fact which could be about a person or place of significance. I also include some song, dance and free movement because that is a natural part of me having danced professionally with Sandra Amodeo Dance Studio for 17 years and done formal training in piano, voice and pan.”
Edwards also provides entertainment for children at celebratory events.
“I run a bunch of games and do a dance routine, sing along and read aloud,” she said. “Anything is fun for children as long as they feel they are seen or included. For birthday parties, I ask for the theme and find a story, more likely historical, that meets that requirement. I keep it light, but try to find out how much they know about what we are talking about and I then supplement. That works well. I also recently released an extended playlist where I re-made a few nursery rhymes. What is interesting about that is that I created some of the songs specifically for birthday parties and people asked where they could buy it. That is when I decided to make recordings.”
For a group of up to 30 children, the price for the entertainment package is $300. For an additional $150, kids are provided a loot bag, containing a book by a Black author centred on the theme along with educational toys, colouring sheets and crayons.
Very shy growing up, Edwards credits dance with boosting her time management and confidence.
“I would rather be in a corner reading a book, listening to music or watching a movie,” she said. “But my dad (late Justice of the Peace Clem Edwards who migrated from Grenada in 1968 and died in September 2018) always instilled in me that I have to be at the front. I was an introvert who was taught how to be extroverted and that has helped me a lot.”
In 2008, Edwards was runner-up in the Miss Queen of the Islands pageant and the recipient of the Most Improved Contestant prize. The following year, she won the Miss Canada Globe title and represented Canada at the Miss Globe International Pageant in Turkey in 2010.
With her pageant experience, she co-managed the Miss Grenada Day pageant in 2016 and 2017.
Edwards can be reached at theloveandlightcollective.ca
