Back To School Celebration Major Success
Vincent Sherry offers back pack colour choices to 9 year old Julian MacRae, as 9 year old Ryder Andres looks on – photos 250News
Prince George, B.C.-The line up snaked its way from inside the Prince George Native Friendship Centre on to the sidewalk and out on to Third Avenue as children and parents looked to take part in the Back to School Celebration at the PGNFC.
It is the first time the Prince George Native Friendship Centre has held such an event, and Executive Director Barb Ward-Burkitt couldn’t be more pleased “It’s really important to us at the Friendship Centre that we promote excitement about going to school, that we celebrate going to school, that it be a coming together and supporting that going to school.”
Creating excitement about going back to school is important for all children, but especially for Aboriginal students who she hopes will be encouraged to complete their studies and graduate.
The Friendship Centre worked with the Royal Bank to get the funds needed through the Bank’s “Eagles” program “They have supported us in terms of financial resources that we’ve been able to match from the Friendship Centre as well as other businesses throughout the community.”
The event offered up a free backpack, filled with school supplies, a free lunch, some clothing options, free haircuts, and free photos.
( at right, 9 year old Daniel Junior Sampson gets his hair cut)
There were 700 backpacks available, and enough food for 1,000 as Ward-Burkitt says parents on hand would also be fed.
But what if you are child number 701? No worries says Ward-Burkitt, “If you’re child number 701 we actually have some extra supplies just in case we go over because we don’t want to turn anybody away.”
“We are hoping to make this an annual event” says Ward-Burkitt as she looked at the long line up of folks, “As you can see it looks pretty popular, so I think people would like it if we could do that.”
Below, some young folks get their lunch at the food truck on the PGNFC’s parking lot
Comments
What an amazing event! The Prince George Native Friendship Centre and the Royal Bank are to be commended. This was outstanding! Super fun!!!!
Awesome event! Now wouldn’t it be nice if they had such events for the low income kids regardless of whether they were aboriginal or not. Lot’s of little guys and gals would love to have this happen for them.
This was for low income regardless of race. All were welcome. That is the PGNFC way!
This is a real good thing that those people did.
I can imagine most of the kids were thrilled, new gear and a cool lunch!
That should prime them to look forward to going back to school.
The free haircuts were an awesome idea, I’ll bet some Moms and Dads were happy about that!
metalman.
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