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Clean shores and full bellies Darrell Greer Northern News Services Published Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Students in Grade 4 and Grade 6 adopted the shoreline near their school as part of the 17th annual Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup and, in the process, learned about such impacts on the environment as the leaching of harmful chemicals into the water from shoreline litter and the accidental eating of aquatic litter by wildlife. The local Northern store joined in on the action by donating $2,700 to Tusarvik from its Greener Tomorrow initiative, which sees funds distributed in the community which were collected through the Northern store's 25cent charge on reusable bags. The money was donated to Tusarvik School's breakfast program. Principal Aubrey Bolt said the breakfast program is very important to the school. He said, on average, the program provides breakfast to about 250 kids a day. "We receive a Brighter Future's grant for about $30,000 for the breakfast program, and the Edmonton Lions Club provides about $4,000 or $5,000 toward the program every year, as well," said Bolt. "Both our local Co-op and the Northern store also usually help out every year with money for the program." Bolt said one person is hired to prepare breakfast at the school between 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., Monday to Friday, and staff members also help with the preparation. He said he can't stress enough the importance of the program to the school. "First of all, it attracts a fair number of kids who, probably, wouldn't be at school in the morning if we weren't serving breakfast. "So, for a number of kids, it's certainly an enticement for them to come to school. "And all of the kids get a full belly, which gives them more energy to be better able to concentrate on their school work. "The program has been running at the school for more than a decade now, I believe, and, hopefully, it will continue for many more years to come."
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