Nowadays, we see various announcements hanging everywhere in tarpaulin. Gone are the days when an announcement is written in a sheet of plywood, in a streamer, and in a piece of carton.

An announcement is a public statement giving information about something. It may be a public or formal notice of something; a broadcast message especially a program note or commercial; a brief item or advertisement of a product in the market; a formal declaration of an event; a greeting of congratulations, sympathy and support.

A tarpaulin, or tarp, is a large sheet of strong, flexible, water-resistant or waterproof material, often cloth such as canvas or polyester coated with urethane, or made of plastics such as polyethylene. The word “tarpaulin” originated as a compound of the words tar and palling, referring to a tarred canvas pall used to cover objects on ships. Sailors often tarred their own over clothes in the same manner as the sheets or palls.

As a teacher, I appreciate and welcome the “new” use of tarpaulin. In the early years of my teaching, I found it hard to look for a person who could do the letterings, paint and draw for the materials I would use as visual aids. Today, we can layout and design in the computer and have them printed.

Tarpaulin is now part of every event in our lives. Whatever occasions – birthday, wedding, inauguration, blessing, anniversary, graduation, passing a board examination, reunion, funeral and political campaign – tarpaulin gives us the information we need for the said event.

Even though there are some disputes for the effect of tarpaulin in our environment, we cannot deny the fact that the waste of tarpaulin is manageable. We can reduce, reuse, and recycle them.

By: LOLLY B. RAVAGO | Teacher III | Bonifacio Camacho National High School – Abucay, Bataan