Published in The BANAR, June 2017
The Grade 3 students in Room 210 at Glen Ogilvie Public School have been working hard to fundraise this year to buy two buddy benches for their schoolyard.
The purpose of a buddy bench is to have a place to go when you have no one to play with. The premise is that someone will see you and ask you to join them, and you will no longer be alone.
The students, staff, school council and community have been overwhelming in their support of this project. Hot dog sales, candy grams and a craft sale at our holiday assembly helped the class raise over $2700. Through a Neighbourhood Beautification Grant, the Blackburn Hamlet Community Association generously donated $1325 to complete our fundraising requirements. Their generosity in contributing to making our community a safer, kinder place is greatly appreciated!
We hope you all take the opportunity to visit our new buddy benches in our school yard in the future. Last year, one of the Kindergarten classes at Glen Ogilvie Public School (with some help from parent volunteers) started a garden in the courtyard adjacent to Centrepark Drive.
The school’s Green Team took over the care of the project and decided to turn it into a butterfly garden to attract monarch butterflies and to help the bees. With the support of Glen Ogilvie School Council, butterfly-friendly perennials were purchased for the garden last year. Now, thanks to additional funding from a Neighbourhood Beautification Grant from the Blackburn Community Association, our school can create a sustainable and flourishing butterfly garden with plants that will meet the butterflies’ needs during all of the stages of their development!
We are excited to work on our garden and we hope that, as the butterfly garden blooms over the summer and into the fall, community members will stop to enjoy it when they stroll past our school! Thank you to the BCA for helping us to learn and grow!