These Grade 8 students contributed $350, enough to buy 10 bed kits for Sleeping Children Around the World. They presented the cheque to Dave Dryden recently.
Bill Rea
Palgrave Public School has developed a reputation for being a big supporter of Sleeping Children Around the World (SCAW), and they demonstrating that.
Former NHL goalie Dave Dryden, son of Murray and Margaret Dryden who founded the program, was at the school recently to thank the students and assure them that their contributions are appreciated by young people in other lands.
Student MC Sydney Trepanier told the assembly that the program has distributed 1,195,630 bed kits.
“That’s a lot of happy children,” fellow MC Melissa Blackwell said, adding the kits are distributed to children in such countries as Kenya, Philippines, Uganda, Sri Lanka, etc.
She also said the school has raised money of the years for some 2,200 bed kits. And Sydney added since the Rotary Club of Palgrave matches the contributions, that has resulted in more than 4,000 kits.
They said the school has been supporting the program for some 20 years.
They also praised some individual efforts among the students, including that of Spiro Anthanasoulis, who presented Dryden with a cheque for $210.
“You’re going to give a good sleep to a lot of kids like you,” Rotarian Wayne Cowell told the students.
He added how impressed he was to see children helping other children, “One of the most wonderful things about Sleeping Children.”
He also commented that the Palgrave club is so fond of the charity that they made a video about it, and sent it to Rotary clubs all over Canada and the United States, in the hopes of generating more interest.
“You really have done an amazing job for kids all over the world,” Dryden told them.
He also told them what a magic moment it is for these young people in other lands to get their bed kits, likening it to his first start in the NHL, playing for the Chicago Black Hawks against the Leafs, when Leaf goalie Johnny Bower approached him after the match and said, “Dave, great game. Welcome to the NHL.”
“That was like a magic moment,” Dryden said, adding he still thanks Bower for it. Bower, he said, has since forgotten the incident, “but it sure was important to me.”
He also said the kids who received these bed kits experience a similar magic moment; one they remember.
He and a team of volunteers travelled to Kenya last year to distribute about 5,000 kits, and he showed the students pictures of the trip.
“They were wonderful kids,” he remarked.
