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Hoping to do MORE for students

North Saanich father builds the MORE foundation, which aims to raise money for students and school programs on the Peninsula
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David Thompson is putting himself in the kids seats to finish the paperwork creating the Making Opportunities Rise in Education Foundation

Inspired by his wife and his father, David Thompson wants to do MORE.

“I want to make a difference for kids and education,” the North Saanich father said. “We all want our kids to get the best education possible.”

So he created Making Opportunities Rise in Education Foundation which is just shy of achieving its registered charity number.

“I think providing resources to the programs will give kids equal opportunities,” Thompson said.

His wife Wendy, who serves as vice-president for the foundation, had the time and opportunity to become active with their son’s preschool. That commitment continued as he entered kindergarten at KELSET elementary. He’s now in Grade 1 and she’s heavily into the Parent Advisory Council.

Her involvement, coupled with a life-altering event two years ago, inspired Thompson to build a foundation dedicated to feeding the education system.

Two years ago he lost his father, who Thompson describes as “a man who would give you the shirt off his back.”

“I found out things about him I had no idea about,” he said. “I thought, it’s time to give back and make a difference.”

He didn’t want to alter one life, but affect a selection of people.

“Children are our future and the future is right now, it starts today,” he said.

He plans to raise funds to go directly to individual schools. The first school to benefit from the foundation would be KELSET, where he’s already made the connections with the parent advisory council and administration.

“The teachers and the PAC will decide where the money needs to go,” Thompson said.

Right now he knows the Breakfast for Learning and the Forgotten Lunch programs are seeing an increase in demand and could use a cash influx.

“Kids are being sent to school who haven’t even had breakfast,” he said. “All that money being used to fund those programs is coming from wherever [PAC] can get it.”

He sees larger projects on the horizon, including scholarships for lower Island students.

“That’s really impacting a student’s life forever,” he said. “I want to build up to where we can give on an ongoing basis.”

Learn more about the MORE foundation online at www.morefoundation.ca.