Headline News

Wilberforce students raise nearly $2,800 for food program

March 5, 2024

By Mike Riley

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A couple of residents of Benoir Lake raised $2,780 from a RADAR snowmobile race on Feb. 18 and decided to donate it to Wilberforce Elementary School’s food program. Angelo Bortolazzo and Brandi Loverock donated the money and had a free barbecue for the school’s kids on Feb. 27, helped by the culinary talents and time of AM/PM Outdoor Gourmet owner Andrea McKenzie.
Sandra MacDonald, WES’s secretary, reached out to Bancroft This Week about this donation by Bortolazzo and Loverock to their food program on Feb. 27, along with the free barbecue they were having for the students. They had a RADAR snowmobile run on Benoir Lake with 600 people in attendance and with a 50/50 draw and donations raised the $2,780. McKenzie, owner of AM/PM Outdoor Gourmet (www.ampmoutdoorgourmet.wixsite.com), also a resident of Benoir Lake whose sons are at WES donated her time, culinary expertise and the food products to the barbecue.
“I’m on the lake and everybody, friends and customers, got together to do this,” she says.
MacDonald thought it was going great on Feb. 27 at the barbecue and said she thought it was cool for them to give the school a call to let them know they were going to do this.
“So, it’s going to make a big difference for our local food program. We provide breakfast and lunch everyday and those are expensive programs to run. So, it’s a really big help. It really helps our students come to school regularly with both breakfast and lunch available to them,” she says.
Loverock says that she and Bortolazzo’s son Ryder used to come to WES and they knew they had a food program.
“We phoned the school to see if they were in need of a donation and they said yes,” she says.
For more information on the WES’s food program or to make a donation, contact MacDonald at 705-448-2421, ext. 77010 or at Sandra.macdonald@tldsb.on.ca.
WES teacher Jacob Findeis told Bancroft This Week that he thought that the donation and the barbecue for the kids was awesome and thought it was nice to get the money and feel its impact for a long time.
“I think it speaks to the sense of community that Sandy and the school have worked hard to earn the trust from the community and continue to bring people out and creating that sense of community. It comes back and shows itself in these kinds of ways when a former student’s family says we’d still like to support you,” he says. “I couldn’t be prouder, couldn’t be happier.”