Help keep our kids fed, warm and learning
The Vancouver Sun’s Child Poverty Forum hoping for answers
As applications flooded in earlier this year for funding from The Vancouver Sun’s Adopt-A-School campaign, a disturbing picture emerged of child poverty. Amid the applications for iPads, and new playgrounds, and schemes to hire artists
Generous donations support kids in need #vansunkids
By Gerry Bellett On Tuesday morning, the doors of Captain James Cook Elementary will be opened early by principal Dan Knibbs who will be there to serve the school’s first breakfast — an inaugural event
From a single story comes profound change #vansunkids
By Shelley Fralic The one thing a newspaper reporter learns within minutes on the job, and even more so after years in the trenches, is that the power of the press can turn a single
Strathcona’s backpack program gets a $30,000 boost #vansunkidsfund
By Gerry Bellett The uninitiated arriving at Strathcona Community Centre on Thursdays would wonder if they had entered the right building, the place being awash in food, knapsacks, and volunteers sorting and packing fruit and
Burnaby school tries to beat odds to feed kids #vansunkids
By Gerry Bellett It doesn’t take long for Marilyn Kwok’s voice to falter when she describes just how hopeless it feels, wanting to feed 40 children breakfast with resources that can only manage to feed
Sun readers put Surrey family back on its feet after fire #vansunkids
By Gerry Bellett On Tuesday, the following email arrived at The Vancouver Sun’s Adopt-a-School website from Susan McCuaig, principal of Betty Huff elementary, a school located in Surrey’s troubled north end. “ … We have
Adopt-a-School: Vancouver power couple pitches in to help school #vansunkids
By Gerry Bellett Captain James Cook Elementary principal Dan Knibbs was stunned when he heard that his longed-for program to serve breakfast to hungry children will receive $60,000 from Carole Taylor and her husband Art
Donation turns holiday hardship into joy for Strathcona children #vansunkids
By Gerry Bellett and Gillian Shaw Most kids look forward to their Christmas school break. But for some of Vancouver’s most impoverished children, it’s not a time of joy and laughter but a time of
Bridging the gap: Students learn how little it takes to make a difference #vansunkids
By Daphne Bramham Last fall, Julie Takahashi was not only inspired to do something for the children at Admiral Seymour elementary school, she inspired a whole school to help. What began as a one-time fundraising
Vancouver’s Sidoo family steps in to ensure Selkirk Annex gets its playground #vansunkids
By Gerry Bellett St. George’s student Jordan Sidoo sold $4,000 worth of pen sets over the last two weeks so some time in February 73 elementary school children in East Vancouver will get a new
Adopt-a-School: When toys are not enough
By Gillian Shaw It was a toy delivery caravan that came up short when we reached a little boy who needed something we couldn’t give him. It was shortly before schools broke for Christmas holidays
Best Buy, Future Shop gifts of iPads, computers and cash bring joy, laughter and tears #vansunkids
By Gerry Bellett It was the same in both schools Friday morning — the kids cheered and the principals wept. The tears, however, were of joy, and the cheers? Well, kids know a good thing
Adopt-a-School: Britannia’s needs are elementary #vansunkids
By Gerry Bellett It’s an unpalatable fact likely to upset middle class sensibilities, but affairs are so dire at Britannia elementary when it comes to clothing its needy children that used underwear is gratefully accepted.
Adopt-A-School: Forsaken children find a new beginning #vansunkids
By Daphne Bramham Every child matters even when they’re in high school and on the cusp of becoming adults. There’s this assumption that somehow big kids don’t need as much as little ones. But that’s
Adopt-a-School: Captain Cook in dire need of food #vansunkids
By Gerry Bellett When principal Dan Knibbs surveys his students trooping into Captain James Cook Elementary each morning, he knows that of his enrolment of 343, 165 struggle with English and 35 struggle with various
Adopt-a-School: No shortage of bright kids with big dreams #vansunkids
By Daphne Bramham Three boys pull on a rope, backing up, backing up, until it won’t go any further. Two of them drop the line, but one keeps tugging with all his might. It doesn’t
Community rallies to make December special at east side Vancouver school #vansunkids
By Janet Steffenhagen Members of the community have rallied again this year to make December a special month for children at Seymour elementary school on Vancouver’s east side. The festivities began during the first week
‘Their stomachs need to be full’ In New Westminster, feeding kids is part of a ‘wraparound responsibility’ says the superintendent of schools #vansunkids
By Shelley Fralic It starts early, at 7 a.m., well before the school bell rings. Car doors slam, and light chatter fills the cold morning air as they line up from the front doors of
Adopt-a-School: Canucks icon Trevor Linden scores with inner-city school #vansunkids
By Gerry Bellett The largest collection of Canucks jerseys seen so far this fall were one the backs of kids and teachers stuffed in the gym of Surrey’s Mary Jane Shannon elementary in honour of
Adopt-a-School: Inner-city school struggles to replace condemned playground #vansunkids
By Gerry Bellett With so many needs it’s hard for an inner-city educator like Lorraine Terretta to put a new playground at the top of her wish list for help from The Vancouver Sun’s Adopt-a-School
Breakfasts in jeopardy without more funding #vansunkids
By Gerry Bellett The pots are lined up early — peanut butter, jam down to the dregs, marmalade, cheese whiz, margarine and, lastly, cream cheese — choose any two. There are small cups of milk,
Adopt-a-School: Instilling pride in culture and heritage enhances learning #vansunkids
By Daphne Bramham Sir William Macdonald Elementary is a small school in transition; a place where different ideas are being tried to ensure that some of Vancouver’s most vulnerable children have the best possible opportunity
Adopt-a-School: For many kids, spring break is no fun #vansunkids
By Daphne Bramham Spring break for many kids means a trip to Disneyland or Whistler or going to one of the many kid-friendly attractions around the city, whether it’s bowling or Science World. But for
Christmas is coming: Time to get to work, and we need your help!
At the Vancouver Sun Children’s Fund, we’ve worked hard to help schools and teachers and parents fill the gaps in their local school safety net. But a new year is coming and, with it, a
Adopt-A-School: For many kids, spring break is lonely, hungry time
By Daphne Bramham Spring break for many kids means a trip to Disneyland or Whistler or going to one of the many kid-friendly attractions around the city, whether it’s bowling or Science World. But for
Adopt-a-School: Wesbild offers scholarships to Coquitlam alternative high school #vansunkids
By Gerry Bellett For principal Paul McNaughton, the hardest part of saying goodbye to students like 19-year-old Michelle Adams was contemplating how they would fare in the unforgiving world outside his Coquitlam alternative secondary school.
Adopt-a-School: Income disparity at the root of Canada’s ills, and problem is growing worse #vansunkids
By Stephen Hume She never wore the fashionable outfits her high school classmates affected and she was never at the local diner where we hung out after class. “Chores,” she said. Then, one day, she
Adopt-a-School: Kids learn to survive, and thrive, in the kitchen
By Gerry Bellett Their electric frying pans are filled with vegetables and Project Chef’s Barbara Finley is extolling the virtues of patience while cooking to 31 Grade 4-5 kids in Hastings Elementary, who hang on
Adopt-a-School sets example for assistance
By Patti Bacchus, Chairperson, Vancouver Board of Education Over the past year and a half, several Vancouver schools have been inundated by the generosity of The Vancouver Sun and its many partner organizations and
Adopt-a-School: Moberly elementary faces unique challenges
By Gerry Bellett Unlike some Eastside Vancouver schools, Walter Moberly elementary, with its predominantly South Asian population, neither needs an emergency breakfast program nor hot lunches for its 490 students. What this school lacks isn’t
Adopt-a-School: Moms get their hands dirty to help out
By Gerry Bellett Dr. Barbara Fitzgerald has had thousands of conversations with children in the Downtown Eastside during her career as a developmental pediatrician and the context is generally as grim and bleak as poverty
Adopt-a-School: Vancouver Rotary Club feeds hungry kids at Norquay elementary
By Gerry Bellett A few years ago there was a feeling within the Vancouver Rotary Club that perhaps it was time to redirect its charitable energies to something other than providing breakfast for hungry children
Adopt-a-School: Henderson Annex needs help with technology, pre-kindergarten progam
By Gerry Bellett At first glance, Henderson Annex and its 100 or so elementary students doesn’t appear to fit the profile of a designated inner city school in Vancouver. The school on East 54th near
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