The War Amps
organization
The War Amps is a Canadian registered nonprofit organization, established in 1918 with the purpose of assisting veteran amputees. Initially founded to serve war veterans with financial and advisory supports, the non-profit has since expanded their services to assist to all amputees in Canada.
The association provides multiple programs that specifically target the needs of child, adult, and veteran amputees. The charity generates funding through the offering of their Key Tag and Address Label services, in which donations are made optional.
History
The organization began as The Amputation Club of British Columbia. However, it later became The War Amputations of Canada, eventually shortening to the War Amps.
In 1978, the War Amps began its long-running children's safety campaign "PlaySafe". A 1984 public service announcement for the campaign, designed by Peter Svatech introduced Astar, a robot character created by then CEO Cliff Chadderton, who was used to demonstrate dangers that could lead to amputations. The PSA received a positive reception due to its response from youth audiences, while frequent airplay during Saturday-morning cartoon blocks helped the spot become part of Canadian popular culture. Astar would serve as the War Amps' mascot for several decades, and a new computer animated remake of the PSA was introduced in 2000.
The public source identifies “The War Amps” as organization. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Amps and organization.
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The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7773463. VIAF identifies the subject as 147673382. The Library of Congress control number is n92106327. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1918, 1978, 1984 and 2000.
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This entry incorporates text from “The War Amps” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.