Invitation to Contribute to Penelakut Healing Session Travel Bursary
Monday, July 26, 2021 at 9:26PM Dear Thetis Islanders,
A number of you have reached out with great care and concern asking if there is some way to contribute indirectly to the two healing sessions for residential school survivorsto be hosted by Penelakut Tribe on July 28 and Aug 4. I have inquired with one of the Penelakut organizers about what would be most helpful at this point. The Band office is accepting general donations of support. As well, there are specific requests for travel support starting to come in from residential school survivors who will have to travel to attend one or both sessions. At the suggestion of our Penelakut contact, to expedite the creation of a travel bursary fund, Michelle Black and I are coordinating e-transfers of financial donations from our Thetis community directly to the bursary recipients, under the direction of our Penelakut contact.
The first request we will try to meet is for $200 for an individual who attended Kuper Island Residential school and is from Snaw-naw-as/Nanoose Bay. He is traveling from East Vancouver with a relative for the July 28 session. If we meet this request, we will offer to support additional requests one by one so as not to raise false hopes for travelers. If you are interested to support this little travel bursary arrangement please contact Michelle or me (Kelly) by July 31 as follows (text or call): Michelle 250-715-8942 or Kelly 250-252-0111. Donations of $20 or more will be appreciated to limit the transactions.
Thank you so much for considering this invitation.
Kelly Bannister and Michelle Black