A generous donation is going to rejuvenate Hope secondary school’s Wood Technology program with new equipment.
The Hope Rona, independently owned and operated by Fraser Valley Building Supplies (FVBS), raised nearly $4,500 which was presented to the school earlier this week.
FVBS store manager Luke Adrian said he was thrilled to be part of the cheque presentation and looks forward to seeing how the money is put to use.
“It was really cool because the school is really trying to grow their trades program, and it was cool to actually meet the kids and connect with them,” Adrian said. “It’s just a sum of money for now, but when that translates into brand new equipment like routers, pipe machines, lathes and a CNC machine and stuff like that, the excitement will only grow from there.”
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When the idea was first presented to HSS administration, they suggested they’d be thrilled with a couple hundred dollars.
Adrian said they’d prefer to raise a couple thousand dollars, then went way beyond that, setting the fundraising goal at an ambitious $4,000.
The exact total raised was $4,425 with a chunk of that coming from Lowes, the parent company of Rona. Through its national Heroes Campaign, Lowes agreed to match half of whatever amount was raised locally, and the trades program provided a natural fit.
“It puts a spotlight on the trades and training young people to pursue a career path in those fields,” Adrian said. “You only have to listen to people talk about job shortages to realize that trades is an under-appreciation section of our society.”
Local businesses/organizations contributed big-time to the effort, including Barclay Fletcher Contracting, the Sunshine Valley Tashme Museum and the District of Hope Ratepayers Association.
“We put it out to the community, and we also tried to partner with the contractors who have worked with us for years,” Adrian said. “It’s a cause that affects everybody in the building supply industry, and we had a lot of really good buy-in.”