Bella Vita Play Yard Fundraiser

Update - April 7th

I just wanted to say a massive thank you to everyone who’s donated. It means a lot to all of us at Bella Vita and is going to allow us to make some really exciting changes to the play-yard. Though I can’t speak for Kettle Valley, the present plan is to begin renovations at Glenmore come April 26th, with many of the additions promising to make this a great summer for the kids.

As for the less exciting but obligatory news, the run of doom is thankfully over. I managed to clock in at 2 hours 22 minutes, and severely regret coming into work today.

As for Tarran, he heroically ran for a ridiculous 6 hours and 31 minutes to complete a full marathon. He is now a husk of a man, though obviously much wiser than I, as he called into work sick.

Original Post

Hey everyone,

As some of you know, I’m still in the midst of recovering from medical leave due to losing half my stomach to a recurrence of cancer. In an effort to speed the healing up, me and my mate Tarran have decided to repeat 2021's effort and run a half marathon, raising money for Bella Vita Early Learning whilst doing so. (Tarran is actually running a much more impressive full marathon, but we won’t focus on that). Specifically, this money will be allocated to the play yards of both the Glenmore and Kettle Valley centres. The hope is to raise enough cash so that the children can have access to a wider array of apparatuses and tools, such as Mud Kitchens & Wendy Houses, as well as more simple components, like sand for the pits, and basic maintenance.

Both pics from the Glenmore yard.

This cause is extremely important to me because according to researchers like Leyla McCurdy, this generation of children is one of the first with a lower life expectancy than their parents, attributed to an increasingly sedentary lifestyle full of screens. Children therefore need help developing the view that the outside is a place where stimulation can be found. This is because unlike the inside, children gain a great deal more opportunity to engage in physical and risky-play. With that, the motivational, socioemotional, and self-regulatory skills of children find an easy catalyst to help their development; skills all recognised as playing an integral role in children’s later school success.

As one child most definitely said to me: ‘Oh teacher John, I want to develop into a well-rounded human with a thirst for knowledge. But that’s just not possible unless we get a rad new mud kitchen.’ He then proceeded to weep for his future, before whipping out an iPad and punching the kid beside him.

The run of doom will happen April 6th, and any contribution will be greatly appreciated.