"Stand With Tim" Campaign Raising Money For "Backpacks for Success" Program and New Canadians Centre

Community organization Peterborough Cares hosted its fourth annual “Stand With Tim” fundraiser to aid the New Canadians Centre (NCC) and United Way Peterborough & District’s "Backpacks for Success" to give backpacks to needing children on Friday.

Jamie Emos (pictured) collecting donations from the corner of King and George Street in front of The Venue. Photo by David Tuan Bui.

In years past, proceeds typically go towards homeless shelters. This time, acting Peterborough Police chief Tim Farquharson is taking a preventive approach with this year’s fundraiser. He says prison incarceration rates, crime and imprisonment correlate with the number of kids who fail to graduate high school.

“Anything we can do to encourage that chance to reach a potential by staying in school as long as possible, the better,” he said.

Funds are shared between the United Way and the NCC with none going towards administrative costs. Roughly 690 backpacks with school supplies are needed for the former to get to schools in time for September.

The charity is gathering volunteers to stuff the backpacks on Aug. 30 to be available for pickup from schools the following day. No generic donor funds go towards the campaign but are collected separately.

United Way requires $15,000 to complete its goal since the demand for school supplies increased by 90 per cent according to Sara Mountenay, United Way communications officer.

“There are a lot of students whose parents simply can't afford to purchase the school supplies that everyone else has and take for granted because they're too focused on, let's face it, putting a roof over their head or paying for groceries so the demand this year was unprecedented,” she said.

NCC was chosen as the fundraiser beneficiary as the organization is in need of funding. He says he wants those families including the children to get off on the right foot and in a new country.

“We want new Canadians to come here and feel comfortable and reduce any challenges we can and set them up for success,” explained Farquharson.

The police service board gave $1,000, the police senior team gave $500 and the police board chair gave $500, totalling $2,000 to kick off the fundraiser.

A GoFundMe has been set up to aid in the fundraising efforts for those who could not attend the event.

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