Paterson Middle School receives $3,000 donation from Telus

Gilbert Paterson Middle School is getting an assist from the community.
Friday morning, representatives from Telus stopped by the school to present a $3,000 through the company’s payday lottery committee.
“Basically, of all our employees have the option to give a certain amount of dollars each month that goes into a 50/50, and there we have the money that we can use to do things like this,” said Matt Mosby, manager of community and services excellence with Telus.
Steve Perkins, manager of community excellence at Telus, was particularly excited to return to a school where he spent so much time as a youngster.
“I went to Gilbert Paterson from Grade 1 to Grade 9, back when there was an elementary school still attached here, and I graduated from here in 1998,” he said. “Since I’ve been at Telus, and I found out we could donate some money back into the community and to schools for these functions and programs, I figured why not come back to Paterson. I’m glad to donate and help out in any way we can.”
Perkins added he hopes the $3,000 is put to good use next year.
“I’m just happy this is going to such a great school within the community, and I’m glad this will reach a lot of kids.”
Paterson principal, Darryl Christiansen, outlined some of the ways the funds will be utilized.
“It’s going to help out our nutrition program and our lunch and breakfast programs, and help some of our families and our students that come to school without those things.”
He added the school is very appreciative of the support provided by Telus.
“Obviously, we’re fortunate to have some grants within our Division but times are tough right now for a lot of our families, and we spend a lot of time and effort on supporting them. Funding sources are hard to come by, so having this come out of the blue is just a really awesome opportunity to for us next year to keep some of our programs going.”