St. Michael’s School receives $10,000 from Kidoodle

Coomentator/Courier Photo submitted The St. Michael’s Sports Development Program is in full swing, one of the extra options that will benefit from the $10,000 giveaway.

By Anna Smith
Commentator/Courier

Bow Island’s St. Michael’s School is excited to put $10,000 from Kidoodle Ed’s Million-Dollar School Giveaway to good use.

The school had found out about the contest later in the game than perhaps they would have liked, said Associate Principal Jill Weatherhead.

“The contest came across our path. Right at the end of May. Only days, actually, before the deadline was due,” said Weatherhead. “The contest was actually a million dollar school giveaway. So they were awarding 100 schools $10,000 each. And we got notified, through a chain of principals and teachers that had said that this is a very interesting opportunity. And so we thought, well, what have we got to lose?”

The contest required the school to put together a video, explaining their worthiness and what they would potentially put the money towards if given the chance.

“We just really brainstormed like crazy, and came up with a few ideas, very few of which are in the video that we’re actually going to see come to fruition, but we have way more ideas that we are going to put the money towards. So the ultimate goal was just, you know, serving our students, our K to 12 students, increasing enrolment, and enhancing our programming,” said Weatherhead.

St. Michael’s relies on a yearly school auction in order to fund some of their extra activities, such as arts and field trips, and this money is a very welcome addition to cushion some of the uncertainty that surrounds working with a fundraiser for parts of their programming.

While in their initial video, they discuss the possibility of infrastructure repairs, or getting a lift installed, the decision has come forward that it’s more realistic to put the funds toward doing what they do best; serving students and providing a quality education.

Weatherhead refers to the win as a “little answer to prayer.”

“Being obviously a Christian school, we, when we’re faced with challenges, we use prayer as a tool. And in May many divisions across Alberta received news of budget cuts. You know, one of our prayers was, help us, help us work through this, help us find the best way to serve students with reduced staffing,” said Weatherhead. “And it’s very interesting how God works. We didn’t see this contest coming. Like I said, we submitted May 28. And the deadline was May 31. So it really was, I’m saying, an answer to prayer. Because no, you don’t know how prayer is going to come out.”