A local school of under 200 students has filled 44 backpacks with school supplies for Syrian refugees.
On Jan. 13 Ponsonby Public School donated over 10 of those backpacks to Syrian refugee children coming to Wellington County. The rest were given to the Guelph Syrian Refugee Forum earlier this month.
“It’s important for (students) to understand how lucky they are and we’re trying to get the point across how terrifying it would be for a little child to come to a country they don’t know, to have to leave home,” explained Ponsonby kindergarten teacher Amy McPhedran.
“They don’t speak the language and to be kind of placed in the school, and it’s a scary experience, so getting something, a nice gift like a backpack, is something that (our students) can identify with.”
McPhedran and co-organizer Laura White, the school’s Grade 3/4 teacher, ran the collection of school supplies for about a week in December and the results were outstanding.
“The first day I put the box out it was full,” McPhedran said.
Five Grade 6 students sorted and organized all the donated items into the backpacks.
A portion of the backpacks was geared towards primary/junior students, with crayons, pencil crayons, construction paper, water bottles, lunch boxes, glue sticks and more.
The others were filled for older students and contained USB memory sticks, headphones, geometry sets, lined paper, binders and other school supplies appropriate for older students, White explained.
Colleen Brunelle and Joanne Liang from Wellington County Settlement Services came to pick up the backpacks.
Liang will work with refugees who settle in the region.
“I think they will be thrilled because they may not have any expectation upon their arrival; they will see people here, Canadian people, already have backpacks ready for them to go to school,” Liang said.
“They will be really happy and excited and … I believe they may be overwhelmed at the welcoming that the community is giving them.”
She added that because of the Syrian war, many of the refugees may not have been in school for a while so a backpack and school supplies are much needed.
Brunelle added, “It’s one way to feel welcomed and with children it’s all about fitting in and what better way to look like your fellow classmates than to actually have a backpack as well.”
Liang said she is aware of two refugee families in the county. One family arrived in late December and the other one more recently. If they have children going to school and seek out the aid of settlement services, they may receive one of the backpacks Ponsonby has prepared.
White said the school requested that some of the backpacks be kept in the district so students could see the direct impact of their efforts.
“We wanted to be able to tell our kids that two kids in Orangeville received these and the kids would actually know where that is,” she said.
The backpack campaign is one of many planned for the school’s first year of “Ponsonby Gives Back.”
Last year the school fundraised large amounts of money for its new outdoor classroom and this year teachers decided to put the same effort into campaigning for others’ needs.
“We wanted to kind of spread the love, so to speak,” White said.
McPhedran added, “Every month we kind of had a different charity that we wanted to give to and then we were able to tweak it when we found out about the need for the Syrian refugees.”
Next on the list is a toiletry drive, with donations going to the Guelph Food Bank.
