The Government of Canada says that school-aged children should do 60 minutes of physical activity every day. Sadly, many after-school programs and extra-curricular activities stopped running during the COVID-19 Pandemic. As a community coach, I saw a need so I proposed filling 5 gallon buckets with simple game equipment that could be given away.
Canadian Tire had the best prices for most of the items. More importantly, the franchise really supports youth sports. When Marc Telosky, General Manager of the Nanaimo store, heard about this project, he donated five buckets including all the game equipment to fill them.
Branden Ouellet, who manages the Nanaimo BCAA Service Centre, also supported the project by donating the stands and signs that caution drivers to slow down where kids play.
By the end of the project, 22 buckets were filled using the Neighbourhood Small Grant. Shona Sneddon, the Principal at Ladysmith Primary School, committed to working with Michelle Mills to distribute the buckets to families in the community. However, the school building did not have much storage space available. So Pastor Joe Bott at Bethel Church allowed the buckets to be kept in one of the unused rooms until they could be delivered.
