B.C.'s watchdog for children and youth made a special trip to Burnaby's Byrne Creek Secondary Friday, Feb. 10.
Mary Ellen TurpelLafond was the main speaker at a forum on poverty, held at Byrne Creek.
The teachers from Byrne Creek organized the forum to bring youth together to build awareness around poverty issues, and more than 100 students from Burnaby and Coquitlam attended.
Local MLA Raj Chouhan spoke at the forum, as did Surrey MLA Jagrup Brar.
Brar recently completed a month-long challenge to live on welfare to get an idea of what it was like to be poor.
Mutual aid
Four Grade 7 students at Burnaby's St. Helen's School have been busy raising money for Seymour Elementary in Vancouver.
Alyssa Sommer, Anita Didak, Bianca Moretto and Sophia Govorcin held an ice-skating fundraiser recently in Vancouver and raised $655 for Seymour. Last year, Seymour teacher Carrie Gelson issued a public plea for help on behalf of students who needed basic things like shoes, socks and snacks.
The St. Helen's students called the fundraiser Schools Helping Schools, Kids Helping Kids.
Musical boost
Alpha Secondary recently won a collection of musical instruments in a MusiCounts contest. About a quarter of Alpha's 850 students are enrolled in music programs.
The prize pack is valued at more than $12,000 and includes a drum kit, a digital piano, a synthesizer and amps.
PADS names new director
The Burnaby-based group that trains dogs to help people with mobility or hearing challenges has a new person at the helm.
Laura Watamanuk is the new executive director at Pacific Assistance Dogs Society, replacing outgoing Kevin Pidwerbeski.
The non-profit group said the board is focusing on generating revenue and that they need "renewed leadership."
PADS trains assistance dogs to help people with disabilities.
The dogs can perform a variety of tasks, like picking up objects, turning on lights or pulling wheelchairs up hills.
PADS is often looking for volunteer puppy-raisers.
For more on the group, go to www.pads.ca.
Students on air
If you tune into CBC on March 29, you'll catch the work of local Burnaby students. Eight Burnaby youth were chosen for CBC's annual News Day in B.C. In all, 30 B.C. students were chose more than 250 hopefuls.
The Burnaby participants are Megan Arora, Allison Graham, Hyunsoo Kanyamuna, Umang Khandelwal, Danielle Kyei, Amar Mangat, Olivia Pink and Raisa Shabbir.
They get a full day of training at CBC in Vancouver, and they'll spend the upcoming weeks researching, writing and assembling stories for broadcast on radio and TV.
They also get a $1,000 scholarship from Sylvan Leaning for their post-secondary education.
For more on News Day in B.C., go to www.cbc. ca/bc/newsday.
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