Lord Aylmer Drive-through & Drop Off for the Food Bank
On Saturday, December 12th, volunteers from the Lord Aylmer staff and Home and School teamed up to collect food donations from our generous Lord Aylmer community.
Parents and students dropped off non-perishable food items in the parking lot at LA’s senior campus from 9:00 AM until 1:00 PM. In past years, the school would set up collection boxes in the front entrances or hallways at the school and food was collected over a two to three-week period. This year, due to COVID restrictions, the food drive was set up differently.
Lord Aylmer has always donated a large amount of food to the food bank but this year’s donation surpassed those of previous years’ by a lot. It could be that running the food drive on a Saturday makes it easier for families to donate. It could also be that Santa Claus, who made an appearance, also helped the event.
One pick-up truck and two vans full were used to deliver the donations to the food bank’s sorting facility which made a special accommodation to open on Saturday to receive Lord Aylmer’s donation.
The food bank weighs its donations as they are delivered and the Lord Aylmer total was 1926 lbs. of food. Principal Eldon Keon also presented the food bank with a cash donation of $300.00 that had been collected during the day. The director general of the Centre Alimentaire d’Aylmer, Gérard Emond, commented on the amazing donation and the on the generosity of the Lord Aylmer community. He explained that the monetary equivalent of the entire donation comes to $5,112.84.
Thank you to all of the volunteers who made the event possible as well as to everyone who took the time to donate and help Aylmer’s families during this time of the year.
Lord Aylmer Angel Tree
Another tradition at Lord Aylmer School during the holiday season is the Angel Tree campaign. 2020 has been a particularly difficult year for many families. An “Angel Tree” helps parents and guardians by providing presents to be placed under the Christmas tree for children that might not otherwise get to experience this.
This year, our dedicated Home and School Committee collected donations from our parents and members of staff. Once collected, our Home and School elves went to work. The campaign raised $4,465.00 in cash donations which allowed for over 250 presents to be bought and wrapped, bringing some joy to 14 families. Each of the 36 children that were part of the Angel Tree will receive 5-7 presents.
Two members of school staff arranged for the pickup or delivery of the presents in the last week of school.
Christmas Dinner
The school would like to thank one of our community partners, Maxi, for generously donating a full Christmas dinner including a turkey, potatoes, carrots, dressing and cranberry sauce for several of our families. Two members of staff are organizing the pick-up and drop-off of the meals for the fourteen families who will receive this donation. We also wish to thank two other local businesses, Pharmaprix and Giant Tiger, for their generous donations of gift cards included in the turkey dinner basket.
Loonies for the Legion
You may recall that Lord Aylmer School held a “Loonies for the Legion” campaign during Veteran’s Week. There was a positive response from the school community. Staff and families from the school raised $1,000 for the Aylmer Legion with funds going to support area veterans. Mr. Christian Corriveau accepted the donation on behalf of the Legion. He is a veteran who has been active in educational workshops leading up to Remembrance Day at the school over the past few years. His informative video was showcased during Lord Aylmer School’s virtual Remembrance Day ceremony last week. Staff approached the school principal about this fundraiser to help the Royal Canadian Legion in Aylmer in light of the difficulties with in-person collection of funds this year. Teachers planned activities leading up to Veterans Week to ensure students gained a better understanding of Canada’s involvement in past wars and conflicts. Shown here are Brady M. (student), Hunter B. (student) and Mark McDonald (teacher) presenting.
Terry Fox Run
As with so many things, the 2020 edition of the Terry Fox School Run was a bit different than in the past. In the last week of September, each class went outside separately during a physical education period as well as with their homeroom teachers to walk or run in support of cancer research. Our online fundraising was a success, with $4420.73 so far donated to the Terry Fox Foundation! Although our school campaign is now officially over, you can continue to support cancer research by visiting our Lord Aylmer donations page: http://www.terryfox.ca/LordAylmerSchool