Donors with hearts of gold help Richmond's needy children
It is the longest commitment Adopt-a-School has ever received - $100,000 for food programs over 10 years. Not only are the Hearts of Gold Foundation and Centro Dental Group donating $10,000 a year to...
View ArticlePriority is to feed the children
Whose fault is it that a kindergartner arrives for school every morning without having had breakfast and, sometimes, without having eaten dinner the night before? Who's to blame when an elementary...
View ArticleB.C. optometrists focus on kids
You don't need scientific research to figure out that if you can't see properly, it makes learning all the more difficult. But what may be surprising is that some studies suggest as many as 60 per...
View ArticleStrathcona families enjoy first pantomime
If you've never seen one before, nothing can prepare you for a good old-fashioned English pantomime. So when about 80 children and parents from Strathcona Elementary school in the Downtown Eastside...
View ArticleBreakfast Club needed more than ever
It was in September two years ago that Mitchell elementary principal Madhuri Pendharkar realized something had to be done about the number of children coming to school hungry or without food to see...
View ArticleCommunity struggles to meet children's needs
It's a scramble at Burnaby's Twelfth Avenue Elementary School to make sure that the kids have even their most basic needs met - whether it is enough food or proper clothes. The school, near the...
View ArticleRichmond school needs help to supply lunches
Vice-principal Tanya Major isn't asking for much - $2,000 from The Vancouver Sun's Adopt-A-School campaign - perhaps the most modest request this year's campaign has received. Her school, William...
View ArticleMore schools come forward for help
This time two years ago The Vancouver Sun launched our first Adopt-A-School campaign after discovering some innercity schools were struggling against a tide of poverty and privation that was...
View ArticleWanted: A few more good women
In the fall of 2011, when The Sun started writing about Metro Vancouver schoolchildren going without breakfast, lunch or even dinner, without clean, warm clothing, and without school supplies or the...
View ArticleA connection that goes far beyond the arts
Linda Shirley was one of the first Adopt-A-School donors when she gave art supplies to Admiral Seymour Elementary students following a public plea for help from teacher Carrie Gelson two years ago....
View ArticleJohn Oliver alumni kickstart fund to feed kids
Vancouver businessman Barj Dhahan wants to ensure teacher Koryn Heisler will never again have to worry about how to feed those severely disabled and impoverished students attending her life skills...
View ArticlePrecious moments amid tough times
For many families, tonight is the most precious night of the year, the climax of all this season means to us - home, togetherness, peace and, for Christians, the eve of Christ's birth. For children...
View ArticleAlumni, service club rally to help school
It's been 20 years since Montreal investment banker Ben West attended Maillard middle school and when he returned for the first time Dec. 5 it wasn't long before he was scanning the photographs of the...
View ArticleVideo contest winners give back to campaign
When Tiffany Syyong and Sarah Savill, students at Richmond Christian secondary school, considered a topic for a video contest, they chose The Vancouver Sun's Adopt-A-School campaign. "Helping kids in...
View ArticleThe charitable legacy of Gloria ZuHoene
It came as no surprise to those who knew Gloria ZuHoene that she would remember children in need as one of her last charitable acts. And not just because she never had children of her own, or because...
View ArticleAlumni come to the rescue at John Oliver Secondary
Several members of the graduating class of 1975 showed up Monday at John Oliver Secondary, bringing with them $22,500 in cash and cheques and a promise to raise a $100,000 endowment to ensure teacher...
View ArticlePen and pencil sales feed hungry children
There are many things Jordan Sidoo could be doing in his spare time. His family is wealthy, he attends one of Vancouver's most prestigious private schools and as far as freedom for a 17-year-old goes -...
View ArticleVancouver Sun campaign helps 51 schools
A total of 51 schools across the province have been approved for Adopt-ASchool funds to feed, clothe and help teachers deal with the effects of education funding cutbacks that have hit B.C.'s neediest...
View ArticlePeer tutoring program not just about grades
Twenty-three murders so far this year and the soul-searching in Surrey has begun. Officially it started Nov. 19 (after the 22nd murder) when Mayor Dianne Watts and RCMP Supt. Bill Fordy promised a task...
View ArticleNo security cameras on UBC campus until task force report completed
The University of B.C. is considering installing closed-circuit cameras in public areas, but won't do so until a report on campus security is completed next year. An interim report - which won't be...
View ArticleSimon Chang delivers hope to his alma mater
Simon Chang's life as an internationally renowned fashion designer is far removed from the reality of life for students at Vancouver's Britannia Secondary School. But Chang, who grew up the youngest of...
View ArticleHelping children with sensory overload
In late October the painters were finishing off the walls inside Admiral Seymour elementary's new sensory centre, putting it out of commission, which was a pity because there was a young boy that...
View ArticleTasman again top in generosity
Tasman has again topped the list of New Zealand's most generous towns in the Oxfam Unwrapped generosity list. In its third year, the generosity index looks at the numbers and locations of gifts given...
View ArticleGitsegukla woman fighting both a monetary and emotional battle
Mavis Jeffries would do anything to get to Vancouver, but it won't be easy. Coming to Vancouver means coming to terms with a lifetime of sadness for the residential school survivor. She's been combing...
View ArticleModern technology connects kids with past
Children growing up poor need to believe that they can succeed and transcend their families' situations. Providing that hope is especially critical in British Columbia, where we have a greater...
View ArticleFrom riches to rags to riches - to donor
It's been 40 years, but Divyesh Gadhia can remember all the acts of unexpected kindness that ordinary Canadians showed to him and his family when they arrived here as destitute refugees from Uganda in...
View Article'Cellphones For Seniors' give elderly a fighting chance
Gladys Jewson, 85, still lives with the damage from the terrible assault 14 years ago that spurred a crime-fighting idea still in use today. Jewson, who lives in her longtime Vancouver home with...
View Article'We have to be there for them'
It is only reluctantly that Batula Ali Ekow told her story, prompted by Somali interpreter Deqa Mohamed who had a part to play in what, unfortunately, appears to be a commonplace drama of poverty...
View ArticleHundreds, if not thousands, of B.C. kids go to school hungry
Forty children come to Richmond's William Bridge elementary hungry every day and bring nothing for lunch. By cobbling together donations from people and businesses, the staff has so far been able to...
View ArticleBeggar can be chooser, opts to donate
MEHSANA: The district of Mehsana, which is the native place of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and also Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel, also boasts of a person who has the heart to share the...
View ArticleIn the world of yo-yos, Harrison Lee is a hurricane
You might remember the Fosbury Flop. And who can forget the Moonwalk. Or the Beckham Bend. And now we have the Harrison Hurricane. These are what are known as signature moves, usually invented by...
View ArticleCause We Care helps keep children safe
It was the sight of three nineyear-old girls sitting together for company and safety outside Thunderbird Community Centre on Cassiar Street that was disturbing. There they were, whiling away the hours...
View ArticleB.C.'s child-poverty rate is a travesty
It's a shameful and longstanding distinction that a greater percentage of B.C. children live in poverty than anywhere else in Canada, and 2011 was no exception. You can argue over which Statistics...
View Article'When you are 18 or 19, you are not thinking about adult things'
Ashley Crossan has a bedroom in a non-profit housing project, and is determined to finish high school and find a job. This may not initially sound like the plot of a success story, but it is, compared...
View ArticleIs technology hurting your baby?
Consider the Fisher-Price Laugh and Learn Apptivity Monkey. Forget just how awful the word "apptivity" is, but focus instead on the realization that this little purple monkey is a toy designed...
View ArticleYou don't have to be rich to be giving
It is often easier to be blinkered to the social problems that are so clearly evident on the streets of Vancouver than have to think on what can be done about homelessness, drug addiction and mental...
View ArticleTannenbaum 2.0: Saying goodbye to the Christmas tree
It started out, as all good intentions do, with a heartfelt vow. There will always be a Christmas tree in my house. No matter what. And a real one, not some cheesy artificial thing that doesn't exude...
View ArticleMore children show up for school hungry
As applications flooded in earlier this year for funding from The Vancouver Sun's Adopt-A-School campaign, a disturbing picture emerged of child poverty. Amid the applications for iPads, and new...
View ArticleRaising cash for Raise-a-Reader
Hundreds of volunteers, celebrities, athletes and politicians hit street corners around Metro Vancouver on a chilly fall morning asking commuters and passersby for donations to raise money for literacy...
View ArticleB.C. is the worst place in canada to be a kid
British Columbia is the worst place to be in Canada if you're a child, and it has been for all but one of the past 13 years. The latest numbers released by Statistics Canada indicate that in 2011,...
View ArticleAll it takes is one mom
Public school libraries in B.C. have been hurting. Hurting for funding, hurting for upto-date titles, hurting for teacherlibrarian staffers, hurting after the relentless budget cuts of a provincial...
View ArticleVancouver law firm helps feed hungry kids at Surrey school
It's Wednesday morning at 8 a.m. and the first of the children are arriving for breakfast at David Brankin Elementary, a North Surrey school that experienced a spike this year in children arriving...
View ArticleDoes Shame Have a Place in Society?
To the Editor: Enlarge This Image Loren Capelli Connect With Us on Twitter For Op-Ed, follow @nytopinion and to hear from the editorial page editor, Andrew Rosenthal, follow @andyrNYT. The essay by...
View ArticleBarefoot schoolgirl sprints ahead
An 11-year-old girl wins her first running race. She is lengths ahead of older peers, braving broken glass and potholes in bare feet. Why? Because she has no running shoes. A teacher takes her to a...
View ArticleThe promise of the time hasn't been fulfilled
We are a nation full of grumbles – and with good reason, too. The festering corruption and its indirect manifestations in the bewildering avalanche of suspensions of senior officials at the National...
View ArticleShoes put child athlete on right track
An 11-year-old girl wins her first running race. She is lengths ahead of older peers, braving broken glass and potholes in bare feet. Why? Because she has no running shoes. A teacher takes her to a...
View ArticleMcCown: Proposed assistance limits will harm children
When it comes to welfare, Texans are conflicted. On one hand, Texans don’t want to subsidize babies that parents can’t afford. On the other, Texans believe in the sanctity of newborn life and the...
View ArticleStruggling with an 'uncertain' future
Matt Brown only ever had one long-term relationship with a reliable adult - his government-funded transition worker, a caring guy who helped him sort through life's problems. But when Brown turned 19...
View ArticleGiving the gift of an old phone can save a life
The number of crimes against senior citizens has increased at an alarming pace in recent years, according to an officer with the Vancouver police elder abuse unit. "Our unit is growing exponentially,"...
View ArticleLate mayor's family asks for donations to Vancouver Sun's Adopt-A-School program
The family of Art Phillips has asked that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to The Vancouver Sun Children's Fund Adopt-A-School program. Phillips and his wife Carole Taylor have been major...
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