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Garage sale kicks off Starfish Pack fundraising campaign

$875 raised for Aldergrove 'Starfish Pack' program
88709aldergroveStarfishSaleWEB
Aldergrove Rotary Club's garage sale raised $875 for the Starfish food pack program.

Starting this fall, just over one and a half more hungry kids will be sent home from school Friday afternoons with a backpack full of food for the weekend, thanks to funding donated to the Aldergrove Rotary Club at a recently held garage sale.

The Aldergrove Rotary Club, which is spearheading the Aldergrove Starfish Pack Program, is working to raise enough money to provide 50 hungry kids with weekend food for the September 2015 to June 2016 school year.  At an annual cost of $525 per backpack, the club needs to raise $26,250.

“So far, we’re at just under 20 packs,” says Gus Hartl, the club’s treasurer, “and we’re confident we will reach our goal of providing weekend food for 50 kids this coming school year.”

Kids who come to school hungry are helped weekdays by breakfast and lunch programs offered by the schools.  But to date there has been little or no help for these children on weekends.

The Starfish Backpack Program was launched in Aldergrove in April of this year to provide weekend food for kids who come to school on empty stomachs. In the last school year, a total of 20 children, 10 each from Parkside and Shortreed Elementary Schools, went home Friday afternoons with backpacks full of nutritious and easy to prepare food for the weekend.

The Aldergrove Rotary Club wants to expand the program to feed 50 kids — 20 each from Parkside and Shortreed, and 10 from Betty Gilbert Middle School.

Please consider sponsoring one or more backpacks so more hungry kids in our community can be fed weekends for the September to June school year.

You may sponsor a Starfish Pack in three ways:

To receive a tax receipt, donate online at www.starfishpack.ca, or mail your cheque to program partner: Encompass Support Services Society, 20618 Eastleigh Crescent, Langley, B.C., V3A 4C4. Or if you don’t need a tax receipt, mail your cheque to the Aldergrove Rotary Club, P.O. Box 1602, Aldergrove, B.C. V4W 2V1. Be sure to specify "Starfish Program" on the cheque.

For more information on how the program works and to donate online, visit www.starfishpack.ca