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Helping hands raise funds

Wood sale brings in $2,500 for Beaver Valley Nursery School
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Beaver Valley parents had quite the operation going Saturday when they cut

The steady sound of a running chainsaw could be heard in the Beaver Valley this weekend, as a group of parents cut, split and stacked wood into customers' trucks.

The Beaver Valley Nursery School wood sale is an annual fundraiser that supports in-house projects like last year's deck addition and this year's back lot development. The group brought in about $2,500 and the nursery still has wood to sell.

“Parents sign up and donate their time and bring their own saws,” explained Jen Pederson, a parent who headed the fundraiser. “Everybody puts their time in, and it raises quite a bit of funds.”

There was clearly no slacking Saturday, as about a dozen parents muscled the logging truck load donated by Atco Wood Products. Wood went by the short box truck load for $100, the long box for an extra $30 and a heaping pile would tack on another $20 to the bill.

“We have parents volunteering their time to help us raise money through this fundraiser to keep their costs of preschool fees as low as we can,” explained Sheila Issel, director of the non-profit society that operates the preschool.

The nursery is located in an old one-room school house in Beaver Falls. Including Issel, there are eight staff members, some with decades of experience in early childhood education and others new to the field.

The facility offers four different pre-school classes a week with 18 children in each, totalling 72 kids. There is also an after-school program under its management that cares for children from another 20 families out of Fruitvale Elementary School.

“It's a great school, it really is,” said Pederson.

Her four-year-old Kaitlyn is already attending the nursery and two-year-old Olivia is eager to get started.

“People line up, actually, to get in here. On registration day, you'll see moms camped out here with lawn chairs,” she explained.

“No word of a lie, when I first came here to sign Kaitlyn up, I thought if I got here 10 minutes early I was good,” she added. “No, I got here 10 minutes early, and she was on the wait list because I had no idea the demand for this school.”

Anyone interested in buying the remaining wood, can contact Pederson at 250-921-5853.