Garrett SaundryAfter a particularly frustrating day this September, Carrie Gelson, a teacher at Seymour Elementary, an inner city school in Vancouver, sat down and wrote an open letter to the people of Vancouver. In it, she voiced her frustration with the difficulties of trying to teach children who come to school hungry, cold and emotionally stressed. She told of children arriving at school without breakfast, from homeless shelters and without appropriate clothing for the weather, of children whose home lives are so stressful they breakdown in the middle of a lesson.
The letter went viral and Vancouverites responded overwhelmingly with donations of cash, time, experiences, food and clothing. In an effort to rally a similar response for other schools with comparable needs, the Vancouver Sun, through the Vancouver Sun’s Children’s Fund, is launching the ‘Adopt-a-School’ program in the period leading up to Christmas.
“Our goal is not only to involve readers but the greater community. Many businesses and individuals have stepped forward already to help, including major corporations such as Telus, which is sponsoring the Adopt-a-School text donation program and a $1/like donation for the Children’s Fund Facebook page. Others have contributed new warm clothing as well as experiences for classrooms, including a visit by one inner city classroom to the set of the Vancouver-shot television Mr. Young.”
Starting November 12, readers can look for Vancouver Sun stories in print and on the Vancouver Sun website chronicling the needs of children — from breakfast programs to winter coats — in inner-city schools throughout Metro Vancouver.
Webnames is honoured to be a part of this initiative as webhost for vansunkidsfund.ca.
The Vancouver Sun Children’s Fund Backgrounder
In 1981, then Vancouver Sun publisher Clark Davey decided to use the paper’s influence and do something special for needy children in British Columbia. He determined that if we combined our journalistic talent and community commitment to inform readers about children living in poverty, about disabled, abused and at-risk children — here in our own back yard — then we could raise not only awareness, but money, too.
The Vancouver Sun Children’s Fund was born, a non-profit charity that has raised $11 million to date through reader donations, and has disbursed nearly $7 million in grants to children’s charities throughout B.C., as well as special projects such as Canuck Place, KidSafe and Children of the Street.
They have $2.5 million in an untouchable endowment fund, and today issue twice-yearly grants to more than 900 B.C. children’s non-profits, from summer camps for handicapped kids to autism programs.
Adopt-a-School is their latest initiative, and they are confident that Vancouver Sun readers and the communities they live in will open their hearts and wallets to help improve the lives of Metro Vancouver’s inner-city school children.