To the editor:
On Sept. 10, the 100 Mile House Elementary School Parent Advisory Committee (PAC) and Ford Canada put on a really great fundraiser at the Save-On-Foods parking lot.
With every five-minute test drive, Ford Canada donated $25 towards the PAC's efforts to raise enough money to have a kitchen installed into the school. A bigger kitchen is needed to provide a weekly hot lunch, to support the breakfast program, to prepare sandwiches for children without lunch and for many more uses for teachers, students and the PAC.
We had a fun and successful day, and we would like to say thanks to all the parent volunteers and their children, the Sunrise Ford team, and all the test drivers who together helped to raise approximately $1,800.
I was surprised to hear the school’s teachers weren't allowed to come on a Saturday (their private time) to test drive a car (they may like to buy), to support parents and children who fundraise to support them, the school and the children in, due to their job action (looks like strike actions to me).
We could have raised even more money if they could have come and each put in five-minutes of their private time to raise $25 each towards a kitchen in the school they work for.
Perhaps whoever is in charge of making the decisions on how teachers spend their private time would like to donate the $475 that could have been raised had teachers been allowed to support the fundraiser.
I might understand some of the reasons of the "job action" in the school, like hoping to get teacher assistants back into classrooms and having smaller class sizes, but we shouldn't forget where we live and how important support for each other is in a small community.
Elke Baechmann
100 Mile House