A Burnaby not-for-profit has donated $10,000 to the New Westminster school district to support after-school programs – and that’s only the beginning.
The Burnaby Association for South East Side, which runs the BASES family thrift store on Edmonds Street, plans to donate a portion of its earnings to after-school programs in New Westminster moving forward.
The not-for-profit was founded in 2011 as a way to raise money for kids in the southeast area of Burnaby, an area that has a larger population of low-income families. In 2013, the group opened a thrift store on Kingsway (it has since moved to Edmonds Street) to raise funds.
“We started it to raise money,” said Sharon Domaas, one of the founders of BASES and a New Westminster resident.
Last year, the group gave $150,000 to six schools in Burnaby to help run programs for kids outside of school hours. This includes everything from after-school bike classes to gardening clubs. It’s up to the schools to decide how they want to spend the money they receive, Domaas added.
Recently, the group, which includes some New Westminster residents like Domaas, approached the New Westminster school district to see if it could help some of its schools.
The district agreed, and last month BASES donated $10,000 to the school district as part of a pilot program.
“Just because 10th Avenue is there doesn’t mean the demographic is any different,” Domaas said.
The money gifted to the district will be used to support after-school programs at Ecole Qayqayt and Lord Kelvin elementary schools, including Rec and Read, running this month at Qayqayt.
