When a new St. Frances Cree Bilingual School facility opens in 2024, it will have enhanced performing arts programming thanks to funding from Saskatoon Nutana Rotary Club. At an event held at the Park Town Hotel on September 6, the first of five $20,000 cheques was presented to Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools.
From Left to Right, Jim Gilles (Service Projects Coordinator with Nutana Rotary) and Mike Gramiak (Past President of Nutana Rotary) presented a cheque for $20,000 to Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools (Diane Boyko, Kelly Cardinal and Ashley Petite) for St.Frances Cree Bilingual School.
In 2021, Saskatoon Nutana Rotary announced a five-year, $100,000 commitment to enhance Indigenous performing arts programming at the new school, which will further reclamation and revitalization of Indigenous language and culture for youth in Saskatoon. “Our club has taken a lot of time and effort to educate ourselves on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action,” said Mike Gramiak, Nutana Rotary past-president. “For years we have built a really good relationship with staff and students at St. Frances, and that has really deepened our resolve to respond to those calls. As a service club, our members want to make a tangible difference, and we believe helping children and youth know and understand—and share through the arts—their culture and heritage is a significant part of the healing needed within our communities. Our hope is that our contribution will help bring together the school community and the community at large. It’s an honour to be working with GSCS in this exciting venture.” “Artistic expressions of culture and heritage can be powerful ways to bring people together,” said Diane Boyko, Board of Education chair for Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools. “Thanks in large part to the support of the Saskatoon Nutana Rotary Club, the new school will be better equipped to give students comfort and confidence in expressing who they are as Indigenous people. We’re very thankful to have partners like Nutana Rotary support students and families.” St. Frances Cree Bilingual School is home to Canada’s largest Indigenous language program. Having outgrown its current spaces, construction of a new school is set to begin this fall on the corner of Grosvenor Avenue and 7th Street, the former site of Sion Middle School.