Make your vote count, and support local kids contributing to their own education
By Contributor
Blueberry Creek Community School (BCCS) Hub needs community support to win a Christmas Decoration Contest on the Home Depot Facebook Page. With one facebook vote from you, the City of Castlegar can come together and put a $5,000 gift card under the tree for BCCS Hub and their new Community Kitchen initiative.
Blueberry Creek Community School Hub entered the Home Depot Christmas Décor competition with a picture of the City of Castlegar outdoor tree which was decorated using the upcycled and natural ornaments, hand made by more than 100 children from the Preschool, Daycare, Afterschool and Strongstart programs at the Blueberry hub.
The top 10 entrants with the most votes on the Home Depot Facebook app will then be judged by a panel. The leader board top score is currently at 246, so with your help BCCS can definitely secure a position on the leaderboard, and with such an appealing entry as homemade ornaments from our Castlegar children, BCCS are in with an excellent chance.
If successful, BCCS Hub would use the $5,000 prize to purchase new appliances necessary to complete the BCCS Community Kitchen. With the support of the City of Castlegar, CBT , SD 20, Zelstoff Celgar, Home Goods, Teck, BCSTA, UBCM and community fundraising, BCCC has raised $36,000 towards the construction of this new space within the Blueberry School.
The new, large kitchen space is complete, just waiting for appliances and work surfaces. A Home Depot win of this size, in conjunction with the ongoing fundraising efforts of Ed Waywood and the Blueberry Bluegrass group, would mean BCCS have the funds to complete the project.
BCCS society member Ed Waywood leads the recycling program at the school, where members of the community drop off deposit recyclables at the recycling depot and the funds go directly to the school.
BCCS Hub will then be in a position to start offering additional cooking and food preparation programming to the community and within existing programs. This cooking component will complement the community and vegetable gardening that takes place at the Hub and is an important aspect of the overarching goal of BCCS to support and promote healthy family lifestyles in our community. The kitchen will also be available to the public for a small rental fee that will contribute to the considerable operational costs of the building.
Blueberry Preschool, Daycare and after school care all deliver seed-to-plate programming, which has been repeatedly shown to develop strong, lifelong healthy lifestyle and nutritional decision making abilities. This experiential learning model, used throughout the programs, sees children of all ages developing deeply ingrained healthy attitudes towards nutrition, food production and a healthy environment. The staff and children participate in planting, nurturing and harvesting their own fruit and vegetables and the new community kitchen will allow the staff to add additional cooking opportunities to the programming.
Vote for the Blueberry Creek Community School Christmas entry and give a huge community Christmas Present to the society. To vote, click here. If you can’t see, in the gallery, the photo attached to this story, scroll to the bottm of the page … then wait a couple of seconds, and more photos will load.
