Last night was the Phase I open house/fundraiser event which was a great time. Those who were able to attend took in the sights and the sounds of the recently completed Phase I of the school which includes a community gym (work-out facility), large gathering area, library/learning commons, several classrooms some of which will be used for science based teaching having a small work station with a sink which can be used for in classroom experiments or activities and of course there is also the new gymnasium. We were able to see the commercial kitchen put to work, though there were some growing pains, we were able to cook hot dogs and french fries for the over 300 people who attended.
Program
Next, those who attended viewed a video of the transformation of the Stirling School so far (the video can be seen to the right), were provided some history on how the Stirling School modernization was able to become a priority of Alberta Education, and the work behind the scenes which provided us with the opportunity to expand the Stirling School footprint to include a new gymnasium through a partnership with Westwind School division, Alberta Education and the Village of Stirling. The addition of the new gymnasium will allow the old gymnasium to be re-purposed into a new theater, sound recording booth, audio and video editing room, and several Career and Technology Studies (CTS) classrooms. We heard from the students and how this will impact the students for many years to come.
Fundraising Update
Finally, we were provided and update on the fundraising effort which have been taking place with the assistance of the School Modernization Ad-Hoc committee which includes: Ben Nilsson (chair), Sandra Nelson, Jeff Nelson, Gary Bikman, Matthew Foss (Village council representative) and Mike Selk.
The event included several cheque presentations from donors finally the Village of Stirling was able to provide Westwind School Division with the first installment cheque totaling $257,988 at the event. Through much hard the School Modernization fundraising efforts have been able to successfully received commitments and donations totaling an outstanding $564,988 as of the start of the night with an additional approximately $3,000 raised at the event through ticket sales and the parent council bake sale/silent auction.
The donation and commitments range from $100 donations, to and amazing $250,000 and come in various forms including monthly recurring donation, in memory donations, personal, corporate and in kind donations. Though we have had great success to date by surpassing the 50% mark, we still have work to do to reach our commitment goal of $1,000,000.
How can you help?
We are asking you all to please help us reach our goal of fundraising $1,000,000 by donating, reaching out to your former classmates, business contacts, relatives that you may know to encourage them to donate as well. All donations big and small are greatly appreciated as they help move one step closer to our goal. If you would like to donate you can visit our donations page for more information on how to donate or for the Village of Stirling contact information.