Salem PS sends backpacks to Iqaluit, Nunavut
December 1, 2020
SALEM, Ontario – Students and staff at Salem Public School have been busy gathering items to send backpacks full of school supplies to students in Iqaluit, Nunavut.
During the school year, teacher Lauren Katsuno and Bryan Farnworth have been embedding truth and reconciliation work into Salem PS. As a result of these conversations with students, it was decided that as a school they wanted to do something more.
The project of gathering school supplies and backpacks for elementary students in Iqaluit was a school-wide initiative that saw all eleven classes participate. Each class was given one backpack to fill.
Items in each backpack include pencils, pencil crayons, markers, glue, calculators and hand sanitizer. Katsuno said that the list of supplies needed came from a high school in Iqaluit and consisted of items that are too expensive to purchase in the North.
During a conversation Katsuno was having with Robin Young from Robin’s Nest Family Care in Guelph about problem solving issues in the community and across the country, Katsuno approached her about helping to support this initiative. In an act of generosity, Young donated the funds needed to ship the backpacks to Iqaluit.
When reflecting on the project and truth and reconciliation conversation with students, Katsuno said they hope to continue projects like this and embed these issues into practice at the school year-round.
Categories: News Tags: Indigenous Education • UGKindness