Staples private school to hold 10 year anniversary thanksgiving dinner

 

In the wake of its 10-year anniversary, a Christian private school in Staples will be holding a Thanksgiving dinner fundraiser, which officials say they need to keep the school running.

Christian Fellowship Learning Centre, a private school located on Rochester Townline Road in Staples will hold its annual fall fundraiser on Oct. 24, at the UMEI Christian High School, a tradition it has followed since it was created in 2005.

The school hosts two fundraisers every year, usually in the spring and fall. With the school not receiving any government funding, John Dyck, chairman of the school board, said the fundraisers are necessary to keep the school going.

“They do fairly well, they raise anywhere from $6,000 to 40,000,” said Dyck. “We have to do fundraisers, that’s the only way we can survive.”

While the funds right now are primarily for the general maintenance of the institution, Principal Lisa Friesen said the school also has long-term plans to one day enlarge their kitchen. The renovations are expected to cost more than $17,000 in addition to $15,000 which was put into a new gym, constructed last year.

“The gym is still a work in progress, (but) we’re able to use it already,” said Friesen. “There’s still some finishing touches that need to be made, the bottom is still just plywood sheets.”

Even though the fundraising events are open to the public, Friesen said they are consistently reliant on the school’s supportive parent base.

“They have to give us so much just to keep us going,” said Friesen, referring to the auctions they hold irregularly. “They donate the items to the auction, they come to the auction and they buy the items (from each other). They really give a lot for this cause.”

The support of the parents goes back to the beginning of the school when several Mennonite parents wanted to branch off from the private school funded by the Old Colony Church, but were hesitant to immediately send their kids to a public school.

“Initially, it was pretty much parent-funded,” said Aaron Blatz, one of the core founding members for the school and its first principal. “We went ahead with founding the school which would accommodate multi-Mennonite denominations as opposed to being from just one denomination.”

Dyck said the school appreciates this flexibility which also allows them to adjust the curriculum to be more biblically slanted. He said the school has recently had students transferred from public schools, because the parents were objected to the new sex education curriculum introduced into the Ontario education curriculum.

“The biggest reason a lot of these parents send their kids to this school is to get true Christianity,” said Dyck. “We need to get more of Christ in our life.”

For more information and times for the Thanksgiving fundraiser, the school can be reached by phone at 519-687-6613.