I just came home from a community school meeting. This is a group of mostly women sitting around a table, and God bless the one or two token men in the room to bring down the estrogen levels, discussing what can be done to raise money for programs and events within the school.
These are the people behind the field trips and books in the library and uniforms and multitudes of expenses that just are not covered by the province or the board.
They don't do it by sending their kids into the streets to knock on doors to sell cookies and chocolates. They get creative. Really creative. They have fun and they banter and except for the people who are part of the group they get very little thanks. People just take, accept and complain about yet another fundraiser, whether their kids benefit from the earnings or not.
The best part about it is that when the province gets wind of groups like this, they pull back their contribution even more because the community is filling in the gap. It's like getting a nice firm kick, and not in the behind.
So why do it? Why not? At the end of the day it is our kids and our school and you just have to do what you have to do. Sometimes you take the raw end of the stick because it isn't worth the sacrifice not to.
The reward is in the pudding, the kind the volunteers bring to the bake sales and the proverbial kind. It is in the smiles and the relationships and the pride that people, even the smallest people take in where the live and how they grew up.
I'm a city girl living in the country and I love the country.
