By Bryan Eneas

Won-Ska Cultural School students get more than just a feast

Dec 20, 2016 | 4:00 PM

For 18 years the Won-Ska Cultural School has held a Christmas feast. This year, students and families got a little extra to take home.

Members of the business community, the Prince Albert Police Service along with staff from Won-Ska and P.A. Outreach banded together to create food hampers for 30 students to take home to their family.

“There’s no way that this is a one person job,” Rhonda Durand, the executive director of the cultural school said. “The staff embraced this idea as soon as we started talking about this a couple months ago, everybody jumped on board.”

This is the first time Won-Ska sent food hampers home with students. Durand said this is because students rely on the services provided by Won-Ska and the P.A. Outreach centre, which is inside the building.

“We’re just seeing a real growing need this time of year. A lot of our families, and a lot of our students are being more affected by the economy…” Durand said. “Having the opportunity to send them away with food and something to sustain them for the next couple weeks when they won’t be here in our program just seemed like a natural thing to do.”

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Included in the hamper is a ham, some stuffing, gravy, baked goods, and more. According to Durand, everyone involved wanted to make sure the families had food which could last for a few weeks if need be.

“It’s pretty much a meal in a laundry basket,” Durand said.

Paxton Red Sky, a student from Won-Ska, said he was stoked to receive the hamper.

“I didn’t expect to get a basket full of food,” Red Sky said. “I didn’t expect much today, it turned out [to be] a good day today.”

He said he’s going to bring the hamper home to his family to add a bit to their celebrations. Red Sky thanked everyone for making it to the school, and he thanked the staff for their contributions.

Staff members made 75 baskets. Of the remaining baskets, 15 were donated to Prince Albert’s homeless and the remaining 30 were given to family members. 

Bryan.Eneas@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @BryanEneas