There’s great news for a local community school for children with learning disabilities and other challenges.
Riverbend will not be closing its full time program afterall.
Director Rebecca Halliday says there was an outpouring of support after they announced in March, that the school would close due to a lack of funds, “Parents came forward to say that this can’t happen. We need Riverbend, because it changed my kids life. There were a lot of stories of support.”
Halliday says she is putting more of a focus on fundraising to help keep the school going, “The parents are more than willing to help with that. I also realised personally that I need to start asking for help to keep the school going, and not taking it all on myself. If I don’t, it is never going to work.”
She adds, “We also rented the bottom half of our building to a wonderful couple and they built an urban garden all around which has been a really neat addition to the property. I also rented out a small classroom upstairs, so that has helped the building make some money to help support Riverbend.”
Over a $1000 has already been donated, and another fundraiser is currently underway through a Go Fund Me page.
“Currently we have 12 students enrolled for September. To see 20 students in there, that are the right fit, is absolutely possible with two teachers and an EA in the classroom, of course. But we would like to keep the program as small as possible, but we can financially go forward with the numbers we have right now, which is very exciting,” Halliday says.
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