It's bad news for families fighting for a hefty grant to build a playground at the new downtown elementary school.
John Robson Elementary School parent organizer Ronda Field learned today that her daughters' school wouldn't be receiving the up to $100,000 they had worked hard to collect from the Aviva Community Fund.
"We are going to have to see what we can do about finding other donors or seeing if we can talk to people who have already said they might help (figure) out where the biggest bang for the buck is because I'd really hate to think of 500 kids going to school in September with nothing but land," Field said.
But it's not all bad news; the school will receive a $5,000 grant for making it to the Aviva finals.
Families at the school have been working hard to raise awareness about the playground grant. They held a march last November and urged residents to sign onto the Aviva website to support the cause.
They want to get a new playground built at Qayqayt Community School, which will replace Robson next fall. (The name comes from New Westminster's First Nations band and is pronounced Kee-Kite.) Field submitted the application to the Aviva Fund on behalf of the Qayqayt community playground committee last year.
For now, Robson parents need to figure out a Plan B for the playground effort.
"Now we are just going to have to try to come up with another plan and see if we can get the community support rallied up again and hope that we can get some other donations," Field said.
The Robson parent advisory group meets next week, and Field expects they will talk about playground fundraising.
"The good thing is, even though we didn't get the money we were hoping to get, we did get a lot of community support," Field said. "We did kind of rally the troops and get people aware of the issue, so I think that's a positive for us, even though it means we have more work to do."
