When Kevin Wilson was in Alberta, his company set up an initiative to provide school supplies to under-privileged children in the community.
Wilson said it was an easy decision to carry on the tradition in the Comox Valley.
“We did this at Hi-Volt Safety Courses in Grande Prairie, Alberta - we started that out in 2012,” he said. “It grew from 100 backpacks to about 400 backpacks per year.”
Wilson purchased the Courtenay Jiffy Lube in November of 2016 and now that the Comox Valley is home, he wants to give back to his new community in the same fashion.
“We see that there’s a need… children who are going without school supplies in the Comox Valley, and we are just trying to assist those kids,” he said.
Wilson met with Sharon Mischook, the general manager of Staples in Courtenay, and together they packaged 100 backpacks with everything from rulers to scrapbooks.
“Kevin came to me and we spoke… we were also very interested in getting involved,” said Mischook. “I’m also relatively new to the area so I have been trying to get to know where the needs are, where we can best support.
“Staples has been doing school supply drives for a number of years, in each of our markets. We realize that parents can have a really hard time paying for school supplies, as well as everything else they need to provide for their children as they return to school every year, so we do whatever we can to help support that. We don’t want any kid to go to school feeling any different than anyone else, because they don’t have the same supplies.”
The Comox Rotary Club supplied manpower to fill the backpacks and on Wednesday, Wilson and Mischook delivered 100 “student ready” backpacks to the School District 71 office, much to the delight of SD71 director of instruction, K-12, Geoff Manning.
“Staples has helped us in the past with school supplies, and we have had different affiliations and different people offer backpacks, but never at a level like this - full backpacks that are ready to go,” he said. “We have a lot of needy kids in our community who can use this, and this is a very worthwhile project.”
Manning will work with the individual principals of the 15 elementary schools in the district, to ensure the backpacks are properly distributed.
Wilson said he will monitor the need this school year and everyone involved will help determine the ideal number of backpacks, to ensure every student is properly equipped in coming years.
“We are planning to do this every year,” he said. “And if any other companies are interested in getting involved, they can contact me as well.”
Wilson can be reached at Jiffy Lube, 250-334-9969.
terry.farrell@blackpress.ca
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