Hi, my name is Patrick Dean, and I am the co-chair of the parent council at Fairmount Public School.

On November 28th, the father of one of our grade five boys was killed in an automobile accident while visiting family in another country. The boy and his family immigrated to Canada in June of this year as asylum seekers through the Canadian UN refugee program. Originally from the Kurdish region of Iraq, the family fled to Turkey in 2016 to escape continued attacks on their city by ISIS. After applying for asylum in Canada, the family spent six years in a UN refugee camp before having their case approved and finally settling here in our Cliffcrest community.

Unable to speak English and having no other support, the family is now struggling to meet their basic needs, as the father was their only source of income and financial stability.

Our Parent Council is organizing a clothing and food drive to address the family's immediate needs, but we are also asking people to donate any amount they can to give the family some much-needed financial relief while they recover from this tragic loss.