As every Canadian is well aware, this year marks the 150th birthday for Canada. From giving all Canadians free access to federal parks, to huge July 1st parties planned all across the country, Canucks are finding multiple ways to celebrate.

The Red Deer River Watershed Alliance is taking a unique approach, by asking people to write a love letter to their favourite body of water, whether it be your local river, one of the great lakes, or your local fishing hole.

The event is aimed at school age children, but anyone can participate, with the goal being to raise awareness and shine a spotlight on the importance of bodies of water in our country.

Not only for the obvious reasons of providing us with safe, clean drinking water, but how the water ways helped to shape our very country, back when water was a primary source of food and transportation.

From there, you are asked to bring your love letters to the SPLASH event this Saturday (April 22nd) at Fort Normandeau in Red Deer.

The SPLASH event, in coordination with Earth Day, features three key themes the RDRWA would like to focus on: love, stories, and place.

The love portion includes gathering all the love letters to the bodies of water Canadians, were asked to write, and combining them into a community art piece.

The stories aspect of this day includes a "living library", where participants can sign out a person from a library collection.

These "living books" will be available to tell their unique stories, and everyone is invited to participate.

You can either rent out a person, or become one of the "living books" and share your stories.

And of course, the place aspect of this day has to do with the historical Fort Normandeau and the spot it is located on, which has a strong history dating back before Canada was officially a country.

Executive Director for the Red Deer River Watershed Alliance Jeff Hanger explains why bodies of water, such as the Red Deer River, play such a vital role in our country.

"Well this is a Canada 150 event, and the RDRWSA wanted an event that really highlighted the role of the river, and highlighted the role of water within the development of Canada for 150 years, and also its current position within the local environment. It's an exceedingly important and often overlooked resource. And this is a great opportunity for us to celebrate that, for us to bring out the organizations that also work to protect the local environment."

Red Deer originally began as a simple but important river crossing for First Nation and later Metis people.

The site that was the gateway between northern and southern Alberta, and is now where Fort Normandeau sits, which is why this location is historically important for this event.

The event goes from 10am until 3pm, and anyone wanting to participate can download the letter template from http://www.rdrwa.ca/