COVID-19 has made us all think in new ways and adjust to an altered way of living. Fundraising efforts also must plan in new ways to adjust.
This daunting task of fundraising fell on the shoulders of the Little Poppets Nursery School when they had to cancel their main fundraising events, their Annual Halloween Dance.
To make their fundraising goal a reality, Kellie Kitzke, President of the Little Poppets Nursery School called her board together to brainstorm ideas; not only to cover this year’s budget but also cover some minor losses from last year.
Witzke was concerned that another year of financial loss could possibly mean having to shut the doors of the nursery school which is so vital to Langenburg and the surrounding area.
A bottle drive became the answer to the Little Poppet’s prayers.
The group held a mildly successful bottle drive last year right after the holiday season raising around $800.
To their amazement, they collected mountains of bottles that needed to be sorted before taking them to the recycling centre; that mountain of bottles amounted to nearly $3000 for the nursery school.
After, the board of the Little Poppets had another decision to make. They had to decide on what to do with the excess funds raised. That decision wasn’t a very hard one for them as they immediately decided to donate to the Langenburg Pool Project who is fundraising to build a new pool in Langenburg.
“We decided to ‘Pay It Forward’ to our brand new swimming pool as we are invested in creating safe places in our community for our children and local families to learn and play! Our Little Poppets kids will grow up here and spend many summers playing at the pool, so we couldn’t think of a better way to share some of the community love we received!” proudly announced Kellie Witzkie in a recent interview.
Witzke concluded with, “The donation is just a small way of contributing to our community, for our kids. Not all children in the community attend Little Poppets, but we like to think by helping in some way, we can help benefit the learning and play of all children in our community.”
Even though COVID-19 has forced us into a new way of living, it is great to see some of the good attributes of our past still shining through.
‘Paying it Forward’ is a great way to help out as the Little Poppets Nursery School has shown with their donation of $500 to the Langenburg Pool Project, thanks to the efforts of President Kellie Witzkie, her board and volunteers.
By Gary Horseman
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
garyfourtownjournal@gmail.com
Four-Town+ Journal