By Geoff Smith

Battlefords kids thinking of the children of Fort McMurray

May 10, 2016 | 5:00 PM

Relief agencies have been working to provide the necessities of life to more than 80,000 people forced from their homes in Fort McMurray and area. But the kids of Barb McNaughton’s Grade 3 class at Notre Dame Catholic School in North Battleford felt something was being missed: toys for the displaced children.

From the first news report the students viewed, McNaughton said the effort grew quickly to a toy drive called “Children to Children” that encompassed all schools in the city. One of the students, Claire Morin, said they wanted to help after seeing a picture of firefighters handing out teddy bears.

“I’d like people to help, too,” Morin said. That sentiment was enthusiastically echoed by others in the class like Sophia Abonitalla.

“In general, helping is a really good thing and our class wants to help those children and evacuees,” Abonitalla said.

Collection bins were placed in the schools, the Light of Christ Catholic School Board office, Bridges Chevrolet, Sobeys, Guy’s Furniture, Discovery Co-op, Battleford Furniture and Super A Foods. On May 25 McNaughton and her husband plan to personally deliver the toys to Edmonton.

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The group hopes to collect one new item for each child and teen affected by the fire and evacuation. Plush toys, Lego, board games, trucks, and books are among the suggested items.

“The kids probably wanted something to play with, because if you realize it, their toys are all gone,” said Faylene Hoffman, another of the third-graders. “They may be very sad, they lost their favourite toys.

“We could help them get happy again.”

gsmith@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @smithco