By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON December 15, 2012 They opened in September and held their first fund raising drive last weekend – and expect to have pulled in more than $10,000 – the value of the items that were set out for the Silent Auction amounted to something over $18,000 which is a pretty impressive sum for a new school in a new community, one that still has muddy roads and construction equipment littering some streets.
The Alton Village Public school set out in the northern end of the new community pulled parents into the school gymnasium on a Saturday afternoon and in a few short hours they had achieved their objective.
With more than $18,000 worth of product to choose from there was something for everyone. The Alton Village Public School expects to raise $10,000 from the Silent Auction.
It was perhaps the first time everyone in the community with children in the school pulled together as one. Many took part in the choice of name for the school but that event wouldn’t have had as many children running around and having a good time.
Mother checks her raffle tickets to see if her number has been called. Not this time.
The organizers of the event made good use of raffle tickets as well as 50/50 draws.
Ross Gligic in the centre with Principal David Purcell handling the microphone get ready to announce there are five minutes left to the Silent Auction at Alton Village Public School.
Her name is Mia and she thinks she can top up the bidding for the exclusive use of a parking lot for the school year.
The coup for this crowd however was the idea to auction off a parking spot on the east side of the school that would be reserved for the school year to the person who wrote down the highest amount. Ross Gligic kept pressing others interested in the parking spot by upping the bid by hundreds of dollars at a time – this item wasn’t going to go cheap.
Hockey sweaters were a big attraction at the Alton Village Public School Silent Auction
School principal David Purcell, served as the chief microphone, calling out the winning raffle numbers as both children and parents scanned the numbers on the tickets they held.
Just call it a melt down – it had been a long day and this one had reached her limit. Mommy slowly, patiently and successfully talks her down.
Overall it was a good day for a new school – with just one incident that caused everyone to pause. Someone couldn’t find their daughter and the principle called out the name of the child and the room went strangely silent until the child was found.
The gymnasium wasn’t huge, the school was in a safe neighbourhood, there were all kinds of parents around – this was a very safe place – the safest of places – wasn’t it? We don’t live in that kind of world anymore do we?
Waiting patiently to see if he won a draw. Successful Silent Auction at Alton Village Public School.
Perhaps in this safest of places we can learn to look out for each other, be aware of the differences and be a kinder society.
The Alton Village School got off to a great start – let’s see what principal Purcell and his staff do in the next couple of years.
The school has much more ethnic diversity than most I’ve seen in the city. The colours didn’t matter – it was a room full of people there to support the school that was educating their children. In Burlington on that Saturday afternoon it was a nice place to be.
