The Vancouver Sun Children’s Fund

As an educator (and someone who has been a supporter of the non-profit sector in Vancouver for years), I’m always constantly looking for ways to promote initiatives that improve the livelihoods of young kids. While food and shelter are simply vital, I strongly believe that education is also relevant (particularly because being educated increases our chances of finding or creating our own jobs).

I recently found out through my friends Gillian Shaw and Crystal Kwon about an initiative launched by The Vancouver sun: The Vancouver Sun Children’s Fund. A brief summary of the history of this initiative:

When inner-city school teacher Carrie Gelson put out her heartwrenching notice in September that her students at Admiral Seymour elementary in Vancouver were arriving at school hungry and in need of warm clothing, she touched a nerve with Vancouver Sun readers, who responded by generously donating goods and funds to the school. Her story, which has echoes throughout inner-city schools all over Metro Vancouver, also prompted The Vancouver Sun Children’s Fund to launch a special fundraising project called Adopt-a-School.

One of the questions that I always have when looking at a charitable project is whether said project will have an integrated view (e.g. funding education but also providing some of the basic needs like warm clothing, food, etc. if there is space for that). I am happy that (from the excerpt I read), the Vancouver Sun Children’s Fund has thought about that too:

With Adopt-a-School, our goal is to raise not only money and awareness to address the needs in individual schools as identified by their educators – the fund will match every penny donated by readers – but also to act as a conduit so that Sun readers can immediately donate goods such as coats and shoes and gloves directly to those schools and students who need them most as we head into winter.

You can donate to this worthy cause here. Interested schools can apply here for the funding (opens to a PDF).