Students and staff at Crystal View Elementary spent the last two weeks holding a toy drive to donate to the Ukrainian Safe Haven in East Sooke.
Bronwyn Bright, the toy drive organizer and kindergarten teacher at the school, says a parent is friends with the Ukrainian Safe Haven organizer so they wanted to find a way to help out.
“She was telling me about it, and then, we just thought let’s do this. And so I reached out to Brian [the Ukrainian Safe Haven organizer] and said, ‘what can we do?'” Bright said. “He said toys would be good. They already had linens and they already had clothes, it seems like maybe if we got all of that it would be a bit too much, so he said stick with the toys.”
Closing out w/ a heartwarming story from Crystal View today. They held a Toy Drive for the Ukrainian Safe Haven in Metchosin that will be welcoming families who have fled Ukraine. Students also painted rocks that Ms. Bright will hide around the area for families to discover. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/KSvcE23aOx
— Sooke School District (@SD62_Sooke) April 29, 2022
Bright says when she brought the idea to the school, there was an enthusiastic response both from people at the school, as well as the PAC who she says was highly involved.
“They were just so thrilled,” she said. “Everybody just wants to do something.”
Over two weeks, people were encouraged to bring new or gently used toys to school to donate to families who will be arriving at the Ukrainian Safe Haven.
“They just bombarded us with stuff. My car is full,” Bright said while laughing.
Brian Holowaychuk, the owner of the former Grouse Nest Resort which he is renovating into a home for Ukrainian refugees, says after the toy drive there is no longer a need for toys.
“Looking at the picture on the tweet that I think that’s gonna be lots,” he laughed. “We don’t really have any any material needs at this point for for any of the groups coming in. We’ve got pretty much everything all lined up.”
Holowaychuk says at the moment if people want to help, he needs donations to help feed people or help with any health needs they may have when they arrive.
As part of the toy drive, some classes in the school were also invited to decorate rocks, which Bright will hide around the property for the families to do a rock hunt when they arrive.
“The children brought in rocks, painted them white and then decorated them with some nice messages, hearts, flowers and pretty pictures,” Bright said. “Then a lot of Ukrainian words translated like ‘love’ and ‘peace’ and ‘safe’ and ‘welcome’ and lots of Ukrainian colours and little flags.”
Bronwyn Bright will be hiding rocks around the property in East Sooke for families to find when they arrive. (Photo: Bronwyn Bright)
Bright says when she was explaining to her class why they were collecting toys for these families, she tried to find a balance between getting across what is going on, while keeping the information age appropriate.
“I’m a kindergarten teacher, so it’s a bit tricky. I kind of said, there are bad things happening there and there’s a war and that’s not good, so we want to make sure that we’re welcoming them and making them feel safe,” Bright said. “We just don’t dwell on anything for too long.”
“We just keep deflecting onto the positive without lying, because they need to know without knowing too much.”
Going forward, Bright says she plans to keep in touch with the organizers of the Ukrainian Safe Haven and hold more collections drives if more needs arise.
“I want to stay connected and I want to keep updating them with things that they need. I don’t want it to just be a one off,” she said.
Holowaychuk says the first arrivals, a family of three, will be arriving on May 6 at midnight, then another family of three on May 9.
“The rest are all waiting on getting their passports back from our government,” he said.
The goal is to house 100 people, 50 in buildings, then 50 in the campground.
“When we get a little bit closer to the campground part, I’m hoping to reach out to people who maybe have trailers that they’re not using that they could donate,” he said. “I don’t know if I’m going to be able to afford to run out and buy all these trailers.”
Laura Brougham
