Rotary proud to support Starfish Pack program

Besides her work in marketing for Total Restoration and as a popular trustee for School District 67, Rotarian Tracy Van Raes also has another job that is perhaps the most important of all: leading the Rotary Club of Penticton’s Starfish Pack Program.

It started in April 2017 with a small grant from the Community Foundation of the South Okanagan to provide 10 local atrisk elementary school students with backpacks of food to take home every weekend of the school year.

Since then, the program has expanded to 60 kids at eight schools, but it had to adjust quickly to COVID-19.

“In partnership with Save-On Foods and Elks Lodge, prior to COVID-19 being listed as a pandemic, we would pack and deliver backpacks of food to these schools every single week,” says Van Raes.

“When COVID-19 hit, we needed to find a new way to get food to these children and their families especially during such trying times. We decided that donating 56 Save-On gift cards once a week to the SD67 hamper program would be the best fit with the least amount of contact.” Staff places the gift cards in hampers for Starfish families. The other four cards are dropped off for Starfish families at Ecole Entre-lacs.

The Starfish committee includes Rotarians Van Raes, Keith Johnson, Anita Petersen, Natalie Ferebee, Barb Hoolaeff and Elks members Lori and Laurie Kidd and Deborah Sayese. The Elks Lodge of Penticton had served as the program’s backpack-stuffing centre, but it too changed course to deal with the pandemic. The Elks are instead accepting drop-offs of bottles and cans on Fridays, and also doing pickups, with proceeds to the Starfish Program. J&C Bottle Depot also accepts returns for the Starfish Program.

Thanks to some timely assistance from the Penticton Elks Lodge, the Rotary Starfish Pack program has recently received $500 in donations to help make sure school kids aren’t going hungry during the pandemic. Gathered for the official – and socially distanced – cheque handover Tuesday were Elks Lodge secretary Lorri Kidd, Rotary Club of Penticton president Natalie Ferebee and (far right) Starfish chairperson Rotarian Tracy Van Raes. Also on hand were (from left) Elks members Dennis Wagner, Kevin Lamb, Doug Belanger, Deborah Sayese, Dave Pearson and Joan Chernesky. Other Rotarians who are part of the Starfish committee but not pictured include Keith Johnson, Anita Petersen and Barb Hoolaef.