Vancouver miners help out local students

Lord Strathcona Elementary School is the oldest elementary school in the city of Vancouver, having been built in 1891 to educate the children of mostly immigrant and working-class families.

Today, some 400 children pass through its doors every school day, most of whom still come from those same demographics. And even though it is a stone’s throw from a global mining exploration capital, it is also within the poorest postal code in Canada.

The heritage school relies on donations to run extracurricular activities and programs, such as subsidized meals.

The burden of raising those donation dollars usually falls on the shoulders of teachers and management, but over the last few years a connection to the mining industry has brought some new help.

Bill Gillies, who now works in corporate development for Spanish Mountain Gold (SDA-V), learned about Lord Strathcona’s struggles from his neighbour, Doug Sherritt, who is a teacher at the school. Dismayed that a school so close to downtown Vancouver’s wealth was in such need, Gillies brainstormed ideas with Sherritt to figure out a way to help.

That was three years ago. Since then, the two men have raised $20,000 from mining companies in Vancouver and used those funds to organize field trips for the school children, many of whom rarely leave their own neighbourhoods.

The first trip, in 2007, saw 120 students and 15 teachers head to the B.C. Museum of Mining at Britannia Beach. The trip was such a success that it has now been repeated two more times. In 2009, Gillies and Sherritt organized a trip for the graduating Grade 7 class to Vancouver airport, where each child got to take a short flight courtesy of Harbour Air Seaplanes.

And in 2010 the organizers brought Slovakian theatre group Teatro Tatro, in town for a performance at the Olympics, for a special performance at the school for the students.

The effort has had an impact on almost 1,000 Strathcona students.

Contributors to the cause include: Abacus Mining and Exploration (AME-V), Adnet Communications, Amarc Resources (AHR-V), Association for Mineral Exploration British Columbia, Capstone Mining (CS-T), Cardero Resource (CDU-T, CDY-X), Constantine Metals (CEM-V), Discovery Group, Goldbrook Ventures (CBK-V), Kootenay Gold (KTN-V), International Stage Lines, Intierra Resource Intelligence, Northern Dynasty Minerals (NDM-T, NAK-X), Redcorp Ventures (RDFVF-O), Resource World Magazine, Serengeti Resources (SIR-V), Silverstone Resources, Spanish Mountain Gold, Terraco Gold (TEN-V), Wardrop Engineering, and Yukon-Nevada Gold (YNG-T).