School aims to reach $150,000 goal

It’s an ambitious project aimed at giving students a better schoolyard for activities. École St. Louis in Pointe Claire, with about 350 students, is working on raising $150,000 over the next few years to revamp the schoolyard and adjacent playground.

“We want to keep the kids as active as possible,” said teacher Nathalie Lussier, adding they hope to acquire playground equipment to accommodate about 50 students at a time as well as to revamp their grass field. “We want to have two micro soccer fields and have some basketball nets. It’s very ambitious. We also want to have a kiosk where the kids can borrow stuff for recess, like Rollerblades."

“We have a huge backyard, it’s just not well used,” she added.

The school started raising funds last fall, including about $2,000 at a bazaar where articles were donated by parents or staff. Funds are also being raised by monthly pizza lunches for the students.

In addition, $2,000 was raised at a spaghetti dinner held Feb. 7 when the food and drinks were donated by IGA Beck, a new grocery store located a few blocks away from the Winthrop Avenue school.

“They gave us everything,” Lussier enthused. “It is heart-warming to see someone new (like IGA Beck) making a commitment to the community.”

With about $32,000 collected, Lussier said their fundraising project will take three years to complete. She said they are now hoping to attract corporate support to achieve their goal.

For more information, call the school at 514-855-4205.