10/01/2025

Dear Families,

The Kerrisdale Elementary School Parent Advisory Council (PAC) has launched our 2025 Direct Donation Appeal to support our children through their time at Kerrisdale this year. Without the PAC initiatives and your support, our children would have a much more bare-bones school experience. 

Each year, your generosity directly supports programs and resources that enrich our children’s learning experience far beyond what public funding provides. The PAC is a 100% volunteer run organization that supports teachers/enhanced programming, extra-curricular initiatives + more.  

Our Fundraising Goal. This year, our annual fundraising goal is to raise $65,000 which will benefit all students across both French Immersion and English programs (at both Main School and the Annex). The more money we raise, the more we can contribute to our school community.

Why Fundraise? Your donations make a direct impact in many important ways:

• Classroom Funds & Supplies – Our PAC provides classroom funds that teachers use to purchase much-needed supplies such as glue sticks, pencils, pencil crayons, scissors, books, and more  📚✏️🎒✂️

• Technology – Our PAC invests in technology to ensure all students have equitable access to digital learning. In the last two years alone, we have funded laptops for student research and assignments, laptops for our library, and the purchase and installation of projectors in every classroom—helping teachers bring lessons to life and supporting engaging, modern learning experiences for every child. 💻 💻 💻 💻 💻⚙️🔧

• Science & Arts Consumables – Our PAC provide funds for arts and science materials ranging from butterfly kits for Kindergarten and seeds for outdoor garden education, to baking soda for experiments and paint and other art supplies.  🎨 🔬 🧬 🖼️ 🖌

• Sports Equipment & Active Play – Our PAC helps fund sports and recreational equipment, ensuring students have opportunities to stay active, healthy, and engaged during the school day (ie: soccer balls, which we all know is a hot commodity at lunch hour) ⚽⚽⚽ 

• School & Cultural Programs – Our PAC funds support school-led activities such as the Maple Man and Coyote 101 education, as well as PAC-led initiatives like the Welcome Tea, Lunar New Year, Parent Education Talks, and the Spring Carnival. 🇨🇳 🐉 🏮 

• School Enhancements – In the past, when needed, our PAC has also funded larger projects such as picnic benches and extensive playground improvements 🛝

We rely on your support, our PAC receives minimal funding through government grands however we raise all other money through fundraising. A budget is created annually, based on needs identified by teachers, staff and school administrators. It is reviewed and voted by the parent community on at the AGM in June. We aim to raise as much money as needed to run the existing programming at the school (school busses/maple man/etc) + support new technology, initiatives, and fill gaps in our students' school- life here at Kerrisdale. 

Ways to Donate

• Individual Donation. A contribution of $40–$100 per student (~$4–$10 per month over the school year) will help reach our goal. To put it into perspective, if every family contributed ~$50 per student, we would raise $25,000.

If you are unable to donate monetarily, we encourage you to donate in other ways (your time for events, volunteer for lot lunch, etc).  We understand every family has a unique financial situation — participation is not obligatory however highly encouraged.  Tax receipts are provided for monetary donations.

• Business/Corporation Donation Tax receipt is provided.

$1,000 = Fund a Family Donate on behalf of 10 families that would otherwise not be able to contribute.

$2,500 = Fund a Class (please let us know if you'd like to acknowledge which Division you are contributing from AND/OR which company/logo we can use for sponsorship recognition)

$5,000 = Fund a Grade (please let us know if you'd like to acknowledge which Division you are contributing from AND/OR which company/logo we can use for sponsorship recognition)

$10,000+ = Gold level Sponsors ($10,000+ donors would be featured in our inagural direct drive campaing and be given founding-partner recognition) 

How to Donate (online instructions)

1. Go to https://vsb.schoolcashonline.com and sign in.

2. Click on “Make a Donation”.

3. IMPORTANT: Select Kerrisdale Elementary PAC in the Fund Destination under Gift Information.

4. In the message box, please write “PAC Direct Drive”.

Click on “Add to Cart”.

Please consider supporting the many PAC-funded programs and resources planned for our school community in the year ahead.