Students at the community’s two public elementary schools are to benefit from a combined $6,580 provided to the schools’ respective parent advisory councils from provincial profits from casinos and other gaming sources.
The Silverthorne parent advisory council is getting $3,100 while the Twain Sullivan parent advisory council is getting $3,480 to help finance extracurricular activities for the students of the schools.
Nearly $11 million in gaming money is going to more than 1,300 parent advisory councils and district parent advisory councils in the current 2021-22 school year.
The money is for activities to benefit students’ social, cultural and physical health.
Activities financed by the grants must compliy with provincial public health orders, while continuing to provide flexibility for those organizations whose programs and services have been affected by the pandemic.
Each year, 5,000 organizations in communities throughout B.C. benefit from as much as $140 million in gaming revenue flowing to the province.
Andrea Sinclair, the president of the BC Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils, welcomed the grants, saying that the “ongoing pandemic has severely limited the ability of parent advisory councils to raise funds in support of numerous school programs.”