HMK walks for toonies

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Published on Thursday, May 26, 2016

By Kira Paterson

Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press

Before HMK kids can play, they have to do some work. Over the past few months, the elementary school has been organizing fundraisers to help cover the cost of the new play structure they have planned. 

The latest fundraiser is their Walk for Toonies, set for Tuesday, May 31. The students have all received pledge sheets to collect money from friends and family leading up to the walk. Then, on the day of the event, the classes will all walk a separate route, carrying donation jars in which they will collect toonies. For some of the routes, the students might be bussed so that they can make it farther out than just the area surrounding the school. The march will start at about 11:00 am and the students will do their route and return to the school for lunch. 

At noon, HMK has organized a community barbecue. The children will all have their barbecue lunch, but hot dogs will also be for sale for anyone from the community who wants to come out. Shop Easy donated the hot dogs and buns for the barbecue and Giant Tiger donated drinks and condiments, so that all the money raised from the hot dog sales will be able to go straight to the playground fund.

On that same day, from 5:00 to 8:00 pm, Neepawa Dairy Queen will be donating half of all their sales (excluding taxes) to the playground fund. Beautiful Plains Community Foundation has also committed to matching all the money they raise leading up to and on the day, up to $15,000. The school is applying for a grant from Community Foundations of Canada to match their donations up to $15,000 as well. So potentially, they could be making $45,000 or more for the playground. 

“If we can do really well on this Walk for Toonies, we can be better than 75 per cent [of the playground costs],” said HMK principal Allen Hanke. They already have about $44,000 in the bank for the project and the estimated cost of the construction is between $100,000 and $120,000.  

People can support the playground fundraising by making a donation at the school office or to one of the kids collecting pledges, by buying a hot dog for lunch that day or going to Dairy Queen that evening, or by dropping a toonie in a jar if a troupe of children happens to walk by on the day. 

Construction of the playground is scheduled to begin in the summer of 2017.