West Vancouver school donates 133 pairs of pyjamas to students at Downtown Eastside school

Students at Vancouver’s Admiral Seymour Elementary will be a little warmer this winter, thanks to the generosity of students and staff from West Vancouver high school who distributed pyjamas at the Downtown Eastside school this morning.

Julie Takahashi, a teacher at Sentinel Secondary, worked with a team of teachers and students over the past two weeks to collect 133 pairs of pyjamas for students at Admiral Seymour Elementary, an inner-city school with many students living in poverty.

“The teachers helped a lot with the fundraising, just getting the message out there,” said Takahashi, “but we’ve also had a lot of students take on that initiative this year.”

The partnership between the two schools began six years ago after staff at Admiral Seymour tried hosting a pyjama day at the school, only to hear from many students that they didn’t have pyjamas to wear. In past years, staff and students at Sentinel have worked to collect hoodies.

“A lot of families don’t have pyjamas or something warm for them to wear, so for them to have something like this and students coming in talking with them, interacting with them, it really makes them happy,” Johnny Tran, an enhanced services staff member at Admiral Seymour, said.

Lia Lee, a senior at Sentinel who took part in the pyjama delivery, said the real gift this holiday season is the opportunity to give back to those less advantaged.

“We’re giving these presents, but honestly, the experiences that they give us, just letting us connect with them is more precious a gift than we could ever give them,” she said.