The Amy Woodland Parent Advisory Council is taking donations to help students, teachers and staff who have been displaced by a fire at the school.
On June 30, a fire broke out at Amy Woodland Elementary, forcing the Southeast Kootenay School District (SD5) to close the building for the upcoming school year.
Students, staff and teachers have been relocated to other schools in Cranbrook ahead of classes beginning in September.
Since then, the school’s PAC has jumped into action to provide some additional support.
“We’re still waiting to hear about the toxicity level of the smoke and damage to the school. From what we’ve heard, most of the contents of the building have been contaminated,” said Pamela Hellewell, Amy Woodland PAC Chair.
“Our hearts are broken for these teachers having to start from scratch. Some of these teachers have been teaching for years, so they have built up so many resources and had access to resources passed down from past teachers. All of that is gone now and they don’t have access to it.”
Hellewell said the PAC has organized a GoFundMe to help raise money for the displaced classrooms.
“The teachers get a couple hundred dollars from the school district for their classrooms each year, but that’s not enough to start from scratch,” said Hellewell.
“The school is over 60 years old, so it has impacted a lot of lives. We thought we should reach out and see what we can do to help to support teachers and staff.”
The PAC hopes to raise $10,000 for Amy Woodland faculty, and they have raised just over $5,400 as of July 26.
Hellewell said the money will be used by teachers to buy teaching materials, electronics, furniture, books, bins, craft supplies and other classroom items.
“Some of these teachers have put in thousands of dollars of their personal finances to make their classrooms feel warm and welcoming to make their students feel special,” said Hellewell.
The PAC is also collecting other donations to help stock up classrooms.
“A mom contacted me and said she wants to help get a small library in each classroom, so she has created the Amy Woodland School Book Drive,” said Hellewell.
“There are some drop-off locations for new or gently used books at Huckleberry Books and Pages Book Emporium. Some volunteers will help sort through the books and make sure each grade gets books for their appropriate reading level.”
For those who cannot give money but may items they want to donate, the PAC is in the midst of a resource drive, which will be ongoing until July 29.
Donations can include gently used toys, board games and play sets.
“When you think of what a classroom needs, it becomes a lot, so we thought there may be families out there who may want to get rid of some toys and we would love to take them off their hands,” said Hellewell.
Hellewell said the PAC and teachers have been thankful for the support from the community so far.
“We are so appreciative of everyone who has been able to help and contribute to making it a success for our kids and making it a great school year,” said Hellewell.
“It’s going to be a big change for the students and teachers, so we wanted to do whatever we could to help and make these classrooms a safe environment.”
Details about the donation drives can be found below.
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