In the fall of 2011, the school year had barely begun at Admiral Seymour elementary when teacher Carrie Gelson, frustrated after a difficult day at work, wrote an impassioned open letter to Vancouver residents asking whether anyone cared that her inner-city students were coming to school cold, hungry and with holes in their shoes. Then, something wonderful happened. On the day that The Vancouver Sun published her letter, by the time Gelson arrived at the East Vancouver school, “People had already dropped off thousands of dollars in cash . . . They literally drove into work that morning bringing donations.”

Clearly, Gelson had revealed a pressing need in our communities. In keeping with the newspaper’s long-vested philanthropic commitments, we not only told her story from a journalistic perspective, but asked our readers — through our Vancouver Sun Children’s Fund charity — to help her students and others. Generous donors did then and they continue to do so to this day.

In 2019/20 readers donated $881,963 in our regular fall campaign. But as the pandemic spread, leaving children without school meals, and putting many of their parents out of work, we launched a special COVID-19 emergency campaign, which raised more than $962,000.

By 2023, we had raised nearly $14 million in donations both large and small. The help has come from individuals, foundations, family trusts and from companies alike, and not just money but clothing, school equipment and sponsored field trips.

But because of rising grocery bills, inflation and an ongoing shortage of affordable housing, the needs have only grown. In 2023, The Vancouver Sun Children’s Fund had both a record number of requests for help from Adopt a School, it a record high donations. Despite the increase in donations, we had to focus tightly on our core mission of providing food, clothing and emergency funds.
For 2023/2024, a record $2.13 million in grants went to help needy children in 52 school districts — with nearly $1 million going to the two largest districts — Vancouver and Surrey.

One of AAS’s main goals is to ensure that no child goes to school hungry, so AAS today funds hundreds of breakfast, lunch and after-school food programs for thousands of youngsters in need.

Here’s just one reason why. At the first breakfast served at the first school we helped, a teacher pointed to a small child who was eating. “That child there,” she said. “In all the time she’s been at this school I’ve never seen her smile, until now.”