I wasnt surprised by public reaction to the Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Suns Janet Steffenhagens article about Seymour elementary this week. Teacher Carrie Gelson contacted media around the city, including the Courier, to call attention to challenges faced by students at the needy inner city school.
She acknowledged support thats already provided through donations, but included a list of whats still neededrecess snacks, socks and shoesand cited larger societal issues such as affordable housing.
After Steffenhagen posted her story, support poured in to the school.
Its not the first time Gelson reached out to the media. When schools with low enrolment were threatened with closure in 2010, she wrote to me about the importance of small schools.
It is precisely because we are a small school that we can communicate so well with each other and remain on top of the needs of our children, she told me in an email. I hate to see what will happen to my students if they are housed in a school of over 500 students where many of their needs may be overlooked and not addressed. When the social emotional needs of these children are not addressed, that is where the learning stops. So few people have any real idea of what life looks like in our school every day and the extreme needs of these children. School teaches them, feeds them, comforts them and loves them. Seymour school is the centre of their lives. It is a happy place.
Its troubling that some Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»students dont have enough food, appropriate clothes, sufficient money for school supplies and activities or reasonable living conditions.
Theres certainly incredible wealth in the city, judging by the amount of money a surprising number of people are able pay for housing, so one wonders why a handful of large corporations or even a few affluent Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»families dont adopt schools on a long-term basisparticularly those without active parent groups, which typically take on a fundraising role.
Perhaps each year a care package of clothes, shoes, and school items could be provided for each student at schools with inner city status, as well as a lump sum for emergency use.
Some foundations and businesses provide generous contributions to Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»schools, many of which the public is likely unaware of.
Last school year I wrote the breakfast program at Macdonald elementary, which is funded privately through the 37-year-old Wolrige Foundation. Alan Wolrige, a 79-year-old philanthropist and the co-founder of the chartered accountants firm Wolrige Mahon and Company, worked at National Fish at the foot of Campbell Avenue during high school and his early years at UBC. He became aware of the poverty in the area while travelling back and forth on the bus. After he formed his foundation in 1974, he decided to pay for a school breakfast program in the neighbourhoodand it turned out to be the one at Macdonald.
Seymour elementary also benefits from financial support from the community. CIBC Wood Gundy has covered costs for the hot breakfast program for 20 years, according to Steffenhagens blog.
But its clear more reliable support is needed at schools across Vancouver.
Twitter: @Naoibh
