Hundreds hit the ice at Skate with Santa

About 650 inner- city schoolchildren in Vancouver had their skates and helmets put on by a unique group of good Samaritans last week so they could go skating with Santa.

The Britannia Ice Rink was overflowing with children from seven schools and looking after them were members of CIBC Wood Gundy’s Bentall Centre office.

The students came in shifts all afternoon to get onto the ice, where most of them needed help to stand up or used walkers or grabbed the side of the rink to get themselves around.

“It’s great fun for them,” said Ron Suzuki, who runs the Strathcona Community Centre and had come along to help teachers from Strathcona Elementary.

The Bentall Centre branch has provided breakfasts for hundreds of hungry children in seven inner city schools each day for the past 19 years.

Over the years it has contributed more than $ 3 million for food and other services to Vancouver schools for needs not covered by the school district.

Tom Porteous was one of the people who started the annual Skate with Santa 10 years ago as a way for the staff to mingle with the children they were helping.

“We look after about 500 kids a day with breakfast, KidSafe programs, safety and violence prevention programs,” he said.

The money comes from donations from staff, matched by the company and more than half is raised by a golf tournament organized by Boston Pizza.

“Boston Pizza have been with us from the get- go,” he said. “And here they are today; they’ve brought 110 pizzas and drinks for the kids to have once they’ve finished skating.”