Kent Driscoll
Northern News Services
Wednesday, March 05, 2007

CAPE DORSET - How do you teach without photocopies?

Teachers at Sam Pudlat school in Cape Dorset have been doing their photocopying at Peter Pitseolak school since two vandals trashed Sam Pudlat school a few weeks ago.

Staff and students finally received some good news last week. The under-24 women's soccer team held a fundraiser for the damaged school, raising $3,075.01 through a penny sale and cakewalk.

"We never asked them, they volunteered," said Geela Jaw, Pudlat school's vice-principal. "We lost a couple of computers, so we are going to use the money to buy two new computers for staff use," she said.

Cheryl Constantineau, coach of the under-24 women's team, joked about the grand total raised, as not many fundraisers end with a dollar figure followed by one cent.

"They got every penny we made," laughed Constantineau.

When Pudlat school was vandalized - forcing the school to close for two days - the community was hurt, not just the students and teachers.

"This sale really brought the community together. Every business in town came together, and really showed their support," said Constantineau.

For the cakewalk, 20 numbers were placed on the floor. For two dollars, you got to pick a number to stand on. The person who matched the number drawn won the cake.

"We made $40 a cake. It did really well, it was around 10 per cent of what we made," said Constantineau.

Slowly but surely, the school is recovering from the damage.

"We are almost back to normal. But we are missing things we use every day, like the photocopier. We had a lot of local help... the churches, local DEA members, elders too," said Jaw.

Following the success of the penny sale, the school is planning on holding another one in the next month.