Cool School is about to get a whole lot cooler thanks to some new state-of-the-art equipment being purchased with a $32,450 donation from TELUS.
The donation is a portion of proceeds from new fibre optic network hook ups in Gibsons. Cool School was chosen as a recipient for its impressive impact on students.
“Our local TELUS leaders help make the difficult decision of who receives the funds, and Cool School stood out to us because the program empowers youth and gives them hands-on skills that will result in a brighter future not only for them, but for the community,” said Liz Sauve, with TELUS media relations.
Cool School runs at Elphinstone Secondary School on Tuesday nights. The after-school program gives students hands-on experience in trades including woodworking, metal work and automotive repair.
Volunteer teachers from the industry pass on their knowledge to the students who can graduate with much of their first year of education in a trades program accounted for.
“Industry is screaming out for tradesmen and the colleges and post-secondary programs are close to full, but half of that program can actually be done at the high school level,” said Cool School coordinator and teacher Roy Boutilier.
Boutilier has been running Cool School for more than 18 years on the Coast with minimal funding, so the injection of more than $32,000 from TELUS is a huge boost.
“What it means is that we can start looking at buying new equipment. We’ve been working with the school’s equipment for the whole time we’ve been going,” Boutilier said. “We repair the equipment, but it’s getting old and some of it needs replacing and we hope to replace that.”
Some of the money will also be used for new computerized machining equipment.
“We want to bring that into the classroom to help get the students’ interest back again by going in a direction they’re interested in, which is the computerized stuff,” Boutilier said.
He was extremely thankful for the donation, which amounts to about “10 years of budget,” and said the money would be spent carefully to maximize its impact.
