Just in time for back to school, 1,200 backpacks filled with age-appropriate school supplies will be dolled out in Sudbury, thanks to a partnership between Sudbury, Barrie and a Kempenfelt Bay lakeside restaurant called Pie, and their Providing Instruments for Excellence (PIE) education initiative.
It’s the second year in a row the initiative, begun by the restaurant's owners along with family friend and Barrie mayor, Alex Nuttall, has come to Sudbury.
At an announcement held in the courtyard at Tom Davies Square on Aug. 20, Nuttall was joined by Greater Sudbury Mayor Paul Lefebvre and Rotarian Gerry Lougheed Jr., representing the Rotary Club of Sudbury Sunrisers.
The Sunrisers hosted a mayor’s lunch on June 4, said Lougheed, and in just that one event, raised $20,000 to purchase the backpacks. He said they plan to hold another lunch Oct. 2, hoping to raise even more.
At Wednesday’s event, Lefebvre said a new school year is just around the corner, and for many families, it's an exciting time, “but it could also be very stressful.”
“Sadly, some children start the year without the basic supplies their classmates and take for granted. This campaign levels the playing field, gives every child a chance to walk into the classroom with confidence, feeling prepared,” he said.
For Nuttall, who told Sudbury.com he grew up in Barrie in government housing, it’s about making sure that kids don’t face judgment the minute they get to school.
“Back to school is like Christmas,” he said, “but the difference between Christmas and back-to-school is that at Christmas, you get to open your gifts in your own home; but on your first day back to school, everybody's opening these gifts in front of each other, and if you don't have them, it just crushes the confidence.”
He said that’s what he felt in his classroom growing up, and “it really made me go into a shell, rather than get out of my shell and participate with my classmates, with my friends.”
He said the donation of the backpacks is not just about school supplies. “You're not just providing a backpack, you're providing confidence. We can't get A's for them, but we can get the tools so that they can get A's for themselves, right?”
Angela Pidutti, who, along with her husband Craig Russell, operates Pie restaurant and runs the education initiative, is from Sudbury originally. She told Sudbury.com that she is thankful to Nuttall for all his hard work, and is also happy to have a chance to come “home.”
“We used to put those big, large recycling bins in the restaurant and just ask for donations of pencil crayons, crayons, paper and people would just go into any of the shops and buy supplies and fill up the bins,” she told the crowd. “I believe at one point I had gone to every store and bought every pack of pencil crayons in Barrie, which probably made some parents unhappy,” she said with a laugh, noting that now the process is streamlined.
It still takes a great deal of work, however, not just to get the supplies, but to arrange each pack. “It’s not just the same thing in every pack,” she told Sudbury.com. “Kindergartners don’t need a protractor, but high school kids do!”
The backpacks will be distributed by the social and housing services’ staff at the city.
In thanking the crowd, Nuttall said only two other cities “jumped on this,” including a mayor in southwestern Ontario, but that Sudbury was the first to partner with him.
But the dream is to spread the need to every community in Ontario, he said. “That's the dream, and a big part of that is what's happening here in Sudbury.”
For more information about the initiative, click here.
Jenny Lamothe is a reporter at Sudbury.com.