‘Really magic for the kids’: Grade 6 students fundraising to go to summer camp

Grade 6 kids at École Isabella Dicken Elementary School (ÉIDES) are raising money so they can spend four days at Blue Lake Camp in June.

Claire Gadd, mother of Grade 6 student Asia Gadd, set up a GoFundMe page to get some help raising the money.

“They’re a great group of kids who are working hard this school year to fundraise for themselves, but we need to raise $13,000 by May 2022 to send them to camp and thought we’d ask for a little help,” reads the description on the page.

The money will help make the trip possible for all 77 students in the grade. Every $170 raised will get a kid to camp.

“To make the trip accessible for all 77 students, we are responsible as a student/parent group for fundraising to cover the costs associated with the trip. These kids will be incredibly appreciative of your help.”

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Aside from the online fundraiser, the young students are also raising money themselves via bottle drives, cookie dough sales, pizza days, and candy-grams. They’re getting help from some local businesses including: Jordan Earl Contracting, Rocky Mountain Chocolate, and The Loaf, the latter of which is run by Gadd’s family.

The school will cover the cost of bussing the students there, and the Parent Advisory Council (PAC), has put about $1,000 towards the cause.

There have also “been a few grandmas and granddads and that kind of thing contributing, which has been super nice.”

Gadd has had three daughters go through ÉIDES, with Asia being her last. Her eldest daughter Evie got to spend some days at the camp after her Grade 6 year, but her middle daughter, Milly, missed her chance due to COVID.

“They were terribly disappointed when it doesn’t happen. It’s very much seen as a tradition.”

Now, it’s Asia’s turn to try to make it happen.

Columbia Outdoor School’s Blue Lake Camp is situated near Canal Flats beside Mt. Marion.

The trip will take place in mid-June, 2022. Campers will have the chance to experience canoeing, fire building, climbing at the High Ropes Course, swimming in Blue Lake, and having campfire sing-alongs “in a beautiful natural setting,” the GoFundMe page says.

“It’s right in the wilderness there. It’s a wonderful place,” Gadd said.

“[It’s] really magic for the kids to go and experience that. And some of them won’t get that opportunity unless they go with the school trip.”

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