Parkview Elementary School in Granby has organized a project for students that will help them gain basic skills in carpentry, painting, sewing, and entrepreneurship, in collaboration with the Lac-Brome Men’s Shed and the Townshippers’ Foundation. Items that are made throughout the project, which include bird houses and toy trucks, will be sold in the local community with all funds raised going towards the Lac-Brome Food Bank and SOS Dépannage Granby. 

“Basically, we do a woodworking project. Our teacher found a charity for people who need money to put food on the table. It’s called the Food Bank of Canada and we sort of just made the birdhouses so that we could sell them,” said Grade 6 student Kelyina. 

Jaqueline Quesnelle, the Parkview Elementary teacher helping coordinate the project, said that the project has a lot of support and all of the tools and materials her students are using have been donated by members of the local community. 

“We’ve had the Men’s Shed in Lac-Brome donate their tools. They lent them to us for this project. We had Camlen’s Furniture in Knowlton, they donated all of the wood that we are using. (…) We’ve also had a gazzilion people donating to us,” she said. 

After posting about the project on Facebook, word of the fundraiser made its way to a group in British Columbia. 

“They donated the parts to build the toy trucks,” mentioned Quesnelle. 

Elias, another one of Quesnelle’s students, said that their projects are ready for the painting stage. 

“A week or two weeks ago, we finished building our five birdhouses (five students were interviewed) and our five trucks. Now, we are really working on sanding the birdhouses and painting (priming) them for the grade two’s to paint,” said Elias. 

Elliot, another student, mentioned that he is enjoying the experience of learning about carpentry. 

“I really like building the trucks because we can have the experience of building, sanding, and even painting the trucks so that was cool,” said Elliot. 

“I really liked working as a team with my friends and building stuff because it interests me a lot,” added Nicholas, a student.

Quesnelle noted that they don’t have a specific fundraising goal with the project, but that they are are trying to raise as much money as possible.

“We are split between two foundations, the Food Bank of Canada in Knowlton and then SOS Dépannage Granby in Granby, so the students did a situational math problem to find out a fair price for the items,” she said. “Then we are accepting donations as well for our cause.”

Once the projects are complete, students will be selling their items at the Relais restaurant in Knowlton. 

“They have a really nice space where they can showcase all of their work. We will be selling them from June 9 until June 12. Students will be selling them, myself I’ll be down there, and I think we have some volunteers from Men’s Shed to accept donations,” noted Quesnelle.

A website has been created for the project, where people will be able learn about the work that was put into the items created by students, that they are expecting to launch in the upcoming days. 

“We will have it out on the Parkview Facebook page and I know that Danny from Men’s Shed will be sharing it as well. We will get as much information out there as possible, but if people are interested they are welcome to call Parkview Elementary School and ask for myself,” explained Quesnelle. 

Listen to the interview below: