An apparent chair theft in a southwest Calgary school left staff stumped, but the neighbourhood woodn’t let them go without.
At noon on May. 8, staff at Glendale School discovered 25 tree-stumps chairs in their outdoor classroom had been swiped.
Within hours, they were being replaced.
“We’re feeling very fortunate and well-loved by Calgary for sure,” said Kristin Dahl, Glendale School’s principal.
Messages of support and offers to donate stumps came flooding in after a tweet posted by Glendale School.
Once faculty left for home on Friday at 5 p.m., stumps from the community had already started getting dropped off, Dahl said.
The stumps were the right height for the students, and were arranged in a circle to allow for a different environment to learn in.
The outdoor classroom also functioned as just a beautiful place for kids to relax while school is out.
“It’s hard not to think of the kids when it comes to things like this,” said Dahl.
“They don’t see the world the way adults do, so it’s important to find how to communicate with them about it.”
Glendale community comes together
Dahl said that they’ve tried to instill in the kids that when things like this happen, as Mr. Rogers says, you look for the people who are helpers.
“The fact that we have so many wonderful helpers in our community will make a difference to the kids that are feeling sad that their outdoor classroom had been destroyed,” she said.
Glendale school is able to move forward and rebuild their classroom, thanks to community donations. Though they know were some of them came from, many of the donated stumps were anonymously dropped off.
“We want to make sure that everybody knows how grateful we are to have the support of our community,” Dahl said.
“We are really thankful and appreciative, and feel a whole lot better after feeling very sad.”
