The Strength of a Community

It is hard to believe that it has been three years since I joined the David Cameron School Community.  Over that time I have been impressed at every turn by the depth of caring and connectedness of everyone involved in educating our students.  This has never been more apparent than over the course of this past week.

Over the last week and a bit we received news that a former David Cameron Student, who still has a sibling in our school, had not been well.  He had spent a considerable amount of time in the hospital as doctors tried to determine the illness.  With concerns mounting, the student was moved to BC Children's Hospital in Vancouver, where he has been diagnosed with cancer.  The nature and extent of the disease is still to be determined.  While the family and our community continued to struggle with the news, many people began to ask, "what can we do for them?".  We quickly wrote a letter asking for contributions at our movie afternoon and were overwhelmed by the response.  Parents, staff, and neighbours were quick in their reactions, with people phoning to ask if they could do more than donate money.  A few of our students took it upon themselves to make and sell friendship bracelets to help raise money for the family.

This willingness to step in and donate or offer services has shown that there is a strong and vibrant community that exists in support of our school and our students.  We spend a lot of time at school talking with students about values, beliefs and virtues.  It is great to see that these are being internalized and acted upon.  December's virtue is Service; that is, service to others to help make their lives a little easier.  We are fortunate to have seen this virtue put into action in so many different ways over the past few weeks.

We will continue to determine how we can best support the family as they learn more about what the coming weeks and months will bring.  As the family helps us to understand their wishes and needs we will keep all of you informed as well.  Thank you to everyone who has contributed in some way to making this whole ordeal just a little easier for this family.