THUNDER BAY - In the wake of long-running after school program that was forced to close its doors earlier this year, future students will continue to benefit from what was left behind.
The treasurer of the former Harbour Youth Services donated $4,600 to the chair of the Lakehead Public Schools Foundation at Kingsway Park Public School on Tuesday.
“We chose to give the money to Lakehead Public Schools Foundation because they have been our backbone,” said Kimberly Nott, treasurer of Harbour Youth Services. “They have allowed us to have a space every year for the last 40 odd years, whether it was at Kingsway or Vance Chapman School. It was a no brainer. The teachers here, the principal here have been tremendous so it was the least that we could do to give back.”
Harbour Youth Services had been operating in the community for the past 46 years, providing free after school programming to students relating to nutrition, literacy, and physical activity, before being forced to shut down last June.
“Unfortunately, like every charity faces, it’s extremely hard to find funding that is consistent year to year,” Nott said. “Upon not being able to solidify consistent funding, there has also been some difficulty in finding a location given that some of the public schools had to merge.”
The $4,600 was the remaining assets of the program and Lakehead Public Schools Foundation chair, Clint Harris, said it was a very pleasant surprise to learn that Harbour Youth Services wanted to donate the money to the Foundation as a way of continuing to help students.
“Anytime money like this comes, when it gets down to the board level, we can look and say: we have this extra money, how can we give this back?” he said. “It allows us to give more money, which helps all the kids and the families in our community. The Foundation provides scholarship funding, we put on awards for excellence, we provide money to the schools who are a little less fortunate. It’s important for us to continue to do that.”
Harris said the money could be used to fund scholarships for students entering post-secondary education, which can go a long way in helping students purchase supplies and textbooks.
Nott said the decision to donate the money to the foundation was easy because it was a way of giving back to the people and families who supported Harbour Youth Services so much, for so long, and who were very upset to see it shut down.
“It’s been like a family system over these last 40 years,” she said. “It was hard to break the news, not only to the families, but to the staff.”
“After 46 years, it’s pretty sad to see an institution like that sort of disappear,” Harris added. “It’s unmatchable what they did in 46 years.”
