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Children cover town with kindness

Excited Brackendale students travel across Squamish to hand out coffee, treats, gifts
Students Rohan Danielson and Nolan Van Ryn unload boxes of donations for the local dog pound on Friday.

Brackendale Elementary teacher Sarah Hain includes acts of kindness as a regular part of her itinerary with her students.

This year, though, things snowballed a little, and the students created a campaign of good deeds that culminated in a whirlwind day of helping others Friday.

“The kids have been planning the project for about a month and a half,” she said.

The students from her Grade 3-4 class, as well as Marian Kelly’s Grade 5-6 class, spent the day visiting seniors, handing out vouchers for free coffee, dropping off donations for dogs at the local shelter and gifts for a Syrian refugee family, among other activities.

“We joined forces and made it a big day,” Hain said. 

As the morning wore on, they disembarked from the school bus in the parking lot at the Sea to Sky Gondola, where they handed out vouchers for free coffee to visitors heading up in the gondola.

“They’re very excited to give stuff,” said Anne MacKenzie, sales manager at the Sea to Sky Gondola.

Gondola general manager Kirby Brown was pleased to be able to take part in the students’ campaign of kindness.

“I just think that it’s a beautiful program,” he said.

At the next stop, they pulled in quickly to the District of Squamish’s dog pound, where a few students got off the bus and unloaded a couple of boxes of goodies for the dogs, including towels, toys, treats and food.
Animal control officer Tracy Seille was thrilled to receive the donations, as well as pose for a few pictures with the students.

“This is great, this is fantastic,” she said. “It’s like a road show.”

After a few minutes, the students got back on the bus and were off to the next destination.

Over the course of the day, they managed to stop at Squamish Helping Hands Society to deliver a food donation, pick up litter in public parks, stop in stores along Cleveland Avenue with goodies, go to the hospital to give their donation, drive to Mamquam Elementary to bring flowers to the teachers and head to Garibaldi Highlands to drop off a gift basket for a Syrian family, before finally heading back to school.

Doing good deeds is nothing new for Hain and her class. “I’ve been doing acts of kindness with my class for a couple of years,” she said, adding that she includes this on a weekly basis.

In the lead-up to delivery day, the classes at the school had been collecting items or arranging donations. The project involved putting up posters at other schools in the community, which resulted in extra donations, particularly from Garibaldi Highlands Elementary.

One of the students also contacted local radio to broadcast a public service announcement about the project. 

The classes raised funds from a bake sale, with help in the baking department from educational assistant Kythe Swanson, as the school made 350 baked goods for the sale, raising $157 for the Squamish General Hospital.

Students Lily Tweat, left, Emersyn Quinn, Hannah Moore, Nolan Van Ryn and Rohan Danielson pose for a quick photo with animal control officer Tracy Seille as they delivered donations and gifts around Squamish. - Mike Chouinard
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