Earlier this week, students who attend schools in Fort McMurray learned they wouldn’t be going back to class until September as their community recovers from a massive wildfire.
Now, a school principal from the northern Alberta community is criss-crossing the areas in and around Alberta’s capital in his 2003 GMC Yukon to visit his students and try to offer them a familiar and reassuring face during a time of uncertainty.
“I’ve probably visited about a dozen schools,” Kevin Bergen, principal at Fort McMurray Composite High School, said. “I felt it was important that if there were any kids around locally that I knew, a familiar face would be really appreciated at a time that’s traumatic for them.”
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About 500 students at Bergen’s school were displaced by the blaze and now he is tracking them down at schools, malls and recreational centres in and around the Edmonton area. So far, the principal believes he’s visited with about 150 current, as well as former, students. A couple of students Global News spoke with said the drop-by was very much appreciated.
“It was actually really nice,” said Jessica MacKenzie, who along with her sister Hailey, is going to school in Stony Plain until her family is allowed back to Fort McMurray. “What was nice about it? To have the comfort(?) of a friend.”
“They care,” Jessica’s mother Tia said. “Their hearts and souls go into these kids so it matters to them where they are.”
That sense of responsibility became apparent during the initial evacuation as the wildfire tore through Fort McMurray. While most students at Bergen’s school connected with their families before joining the mass exodus on Highway 63, four pupils were unable to and Bergen and other staff drove them to safety.
“Had we had staff that had to get their own families out, we would have been in a much more difficult situation,” Bergen said.
The principal said right now many evacuees are still facing insecurity and an anxiety-filled several months ahead. He estimates about half the student body at his school has lost their homes and he’s not even certain what the high school will look or feel like come September. He says he’s glad to be able to be there for his students during such a difficult time.
“Kids just want to talk,” Bergen said. “They just want to tell you their stories and that’s basically what I’m making myself available for, ‘What’s your story?'”
-With files from Laurel Gregory.
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