Darren Campbell
Northern News Services

NNSL (Aug 21/98) - Christmas came early for schools in Yellowknife this year.

As the students get ready to come back to school, G.W. Business Products in Yellowknife decided to let the city's schools have their pick of excess inventory on Monday.

The business, which has merged with Creative Paper and Office Supplies to become Creative Basics, had shut its doors and had excess inventory headed for the dump.

However, instead of doing that, Creative Basics' Bridgette Larocque decided to call every school and day care in Yellowknife on Monday to invite them to haul off as much of the school supplies as they could.

"We looked at the inventory, saw the amount of stuff we had and thought the schools and day cares could use it," said Larocque.

She said the company felt it was better to donate the supplies to schools rather than send them to the dump.

"To us, education is the future of our children and these were still quality supplies," said Larocque.

One of the first schools on the scene was Weledeh Catholic school.

One of the vice-principals there, Dan Curtis, said when he got the call, he wasn't sure it was a free shopping trip. But after he arrived and realized it was, he loaded up on supplies.

He said the school probably took out 15 to 20 shopping carts full of supplies. He said the school picked up approximately $5,000 in supplies during the shopping spree.

Curtis said the free supplies will help the school greatly. The supplies they got allows them to use their budget for other things.

"It's a windfall that happens once in a lifetime," said Curtis of the free shopping trip. "Especially with the financial constraints that the education system is under."