Kids Helping Kids Campaign Sends Hope, Warmth to Attawapiskat
500-plus “Scarves of Hope” to reach James Bay coast soon
OCTOBER 23, 2009
TORONTO – The Member of Parliament for Timmins James Bay, Charlie Angus, joined fellow New Democrat, Olivia Chow (Trinity Spadina), in her riding office to receive more than 600 scarves, hats and mitts bound for the students of Attawapiskat on the James Bay coast. Angus was very impressed with the support shown by the Woodstock students for their counterparts in the far North.
“The student-to-student initiative is always what has impressed me most about this campaign,” he said. “Every classroom I have been in reacts with utter disbelief to the story of how kids in another part of the same province and country are being treated by our governments. I just wish the Minister of Indian Affairs was half as moved as the students and teachers that are pushing this campaign.”
The College Avenue students organised the collection of winter gear during a lunch-time program last winter. Chow was more than happy to make her office available for the collection before the packages are sent north to the James Bay coast community, where the temperatures have dipped into the negative double-digits already this year.
“It’s wonderful to see the next generation of young Canadians recognising a societal injustice when they’re presented with it,” she said. “But even more impressive is that they saw an opportunity to make a positive difference, and they seized on it.”
More than 400 students in Attawapiskat have been taught in makeshift portables near land described as a “class one threat” to human health as a result of a diesel spill that eventually closed the school over 9 years ago. Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl recently walked away from the shovel-ready agreement to build a new school for the increasingly desperate community.
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For more information please call:
Office of Olivia Chow – 416-533-2710
Office of Charlie Angus – 613-992-2919
