The Brome-Missisquoi Perkins Foundation (BMP Foundation) announced the launch of a new fundraising event, “Olympiades pour la santé,” at a press conference yesterday in collaboration with Sutton School (ETSB and Val-des-Cerfs), École de la Clé-des-Champs in Dunham, and Saint-François-d’Assise in Frelighsburg. 

On June 9, students will head down to Goyette-Hill Park in Sutton for a day of sports and recreational activities to highlight the importance of physical activity and developing healthy habits. Physical education teachers from each school and specialists in various sports will be on site to help organize the activities. 

Parents, friends, and the general public can contribute to the event by volunteering for the day or by making a donation. The proceeds that are raised will be shared between the BMP Foundation and the three participating schools to support their different projects. 

“I’m thrilled about it because for me, being a former physical education teacher, physical activities and the benefits behind physical activity are really important to me. Being one of the three schools involved in this event, it’s really close to the heart for me,” said Don Kerr, principal of Sutton School. 

Francis Laramée, executive director of the BMP Foundation, explained that the Foundation wanted to create some type of fundraising event involving children to replace its former fundraiser that took place on Halloween. 

“Years ago, we had a fundraiser every year with the Halloween boxes where children used to raise funds for the Brome-Missisquoi-Perkins Hospital (BMP Hospital) and it was trying to bring a little bit of awareness to give to others,” he mentioned. “That activity has totally been winding down and we were trying to find something that would speak to the schools to get the children involved and to promote our field field of action, which is healthcare. This is why the Olympiades pour la santé came to be.”

Students from the three participating schools will have the chance to partake in a variety of sports and recreational activities on June 9.  

“Relay races, gymnastics, yoga, soccer, chuck ball, you name it and we’re doing it. All the kids, we’re looking at about 350 students at the Goyette-Hill Park in Sutton, are going through a gauntlet of different activities throughout that day,” Kerr highlighted. “We have some really generous donators that are providing snacks that day and a lot of people are contributing financially to the event as well for the BMP Foundation. A portion of that is also coming back to the three schools for our own personal health oriented projects.”

For Sutton School, whatever money it receives will be invested in physical activity outings and the school’s breakfast program, which provides free healthy snacks to students, according to Kerr. 

“For Sutton School, we already do a lot of activities in line with physical activity, health, and wellness and that’s where we want to keep that money oriented towards. If we’re talking any outing that we do, there is transportation involved, especially for a secluded town away from the main hubs, we have to pay for transportation” he explained. “(…) That’s where that is going to help tremendously.”

The schools in Dunham and Frelighsburg will use their share to acquire new proprioception and sports equipment, as stated in the press release sent out by the BMP Foundation. 

Sticking with its mission to support the BMP Hospital in providing quality health care to Brome-Missisquoi citizens, the BMP Foundation expects to use its part of the proceeds to purchase state-of-the-art equipment for the hospital. 

“We were sort of waiting to see how the Olympiades pour la santé would go and how much funds were raised in order to see where the funds would go. At the moment it will definitely go to the purchase of equipment. We have a few major projects on the go this year, so it might go to one of them, or if perhaps we can pinpoint something a bit more specific we will let the schools know about the project the money went to,” noted Laramée. 

The fundraising goal for the Olympiades pour la santé this year is $15,000, mentioned Laramée. 

“I think that it’s a good event to promote healthcare and to bring a little bit of awareness that the schools and the hospitals are always in need of new funds to be able to continue to do what they do and to bring the best to their own public,” he said. “Given that we have paved the way for this new event this year, hopefully the schools and other people will be able to take it over and keep it running for further editions.”

The Olympiades pour la santé is supported by various partners and sponsors.

Those looking to volunteer for the event to help supervise the students and/or to distribute snacks can email the BMP’s event coordinator Olivia Ranger-Enns at olivia@foundationbmp.ca

To donate to the Olympiades pour la santé. 

Listen to the full interview below: