A charity car wash by Chances Maple Ridge employees and their family members raised hundreds for children in need in the community.
The car wash on July 20 raised $825 for the Starfish Pack program, a program that provides meals for children in need over the weekends during the school year.
Deana Trudeau was impressed with their efforts writing online, “Looks like you had the best little helpers! So great to support a worthy cause that helps those needing a little help in your own community, well done!”
And the Starfish Pack Program is not the only charity the staff at Chances has supported recently. On July 11 they presented the Friends In Need Food Bank with $278.35 from a charity coin drive.
Volunteers with the Starfish Pack Program fill backpacks every week with two breakfasts, two lunches, two dinners, and snacks and then deliver them to local schools. The students return the empty backpacks the following week to be refilled the following weekend.
The program started in 2013 as a pilot project with six backpacks as a response to an Abbotsford teacher’s cry for help when she found herself feeding her kindergarten students who were coming to school on Monday hungry.
It was started in 2016 by the Meadow Ridge Rotary Club for students in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows.
The program almost stopped running at the end of 2022. But a $15,000 donation from Prospera Credit Union kept it running.
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In February, program chair Ineke Boekhorst noted that the amount of hungry students the program helps each week significantly increased.
Currently the program serves 250 Starfish Packs every week at 23 schools in the district. Boekhorst said at the time, in order to make it to the end of the 2023 school year and start up again in September, the program would need an additional $40,000 to $50,000.
The cost of filling one backpack for one child every weekend throughout the school year is $575.
To donate or for more information on the program, go to: starfishpack.com/meadowridge.
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