By Katherine Svenkeson

Social Services gets a hand from local students

Mar 18, 2017 | 12:00 PM

Something as simple as a backpack can make the difference for children in the Social Services system, and some local students are working to make that difference.

The Interact club — an affiliate of the Rotary Club — at the North Battleford Comprehensive High School recently received and packed 60 backpacks, which they’ll hand over to Social Services to give to children in their care. 

Dakota Peterson, one of the Interact members, said while a backpack may not seem like much, it can make all the difference to a child who has to leave home.

“When social services has to go and take kids out of a bad situation at their home, the kids that taken out usually don’t have much or anything at all,” Peterson said. “And the stuff that they do have they carry it around in garbage bags and pillow cases.”

She said the backpacks are something special for the kids. They are filled with different things, like toys, snacks, books and blankets, and depending on the age of the kids different things are packed.

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”The kids that don’t have much,” she said. “So just being able to have something to take with them and to keep as their own, just to know that it’s theirs and nobody can take that away from them, it’s everything for the kids.”

All the backpacks will be staying in the Battlefords and area according to Natasha Deren, service manager of child and family services with the local Social Services branch.

She said it’s a wonderful thing the club is doing for vulnerable children in the area.

“Of course kids come into care with all sorts of different circumstances and it’s very challenging,” Deren said. “It’s very nice for them to have a package that’s just for them and that can help them ease into the transition that they’re going into. We view it as a wonderful thing for those children.”

Katherine.svenkeson@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @ksvenkeson