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ESL students enjoy Christmas door swag making in Williams Lake

Cariboo Chilcotin Partners for Literacy staff brighten holiday season for students

On a blustery Saturday afternoon students and staff from Cariboo Chilcotin Partners for Literacy (CCPL) gathered to make a Christmas arrangement.

With a few tables set up in the parking lot of the Station House Gallery, where they also had the opportunity to visit the Christmas market inside, the English as a Second Language (ESL) students used evergreen boughs and ornaments to make something to hang up on the outside of the door at home.

CCPL financial and family literacy co-ordinator Suzanne Cochrane gathered the boughs and showed everyone how to make the arrangements.

Angelika Sellick co-ordinates the English language learning program for the CCPL and said once a month the students, their families, staff and CCPL volunteer tutors will do something together outside the classroom.

“It is within our mandate to connect the students with the community,” Sellick said.

Gurpreet Kaur is originally from India and moved to Canada two years ago.

She first arrived in Surrey and then came to Williams Lake four months ago where her husband is a priest at Guru Nanak Sikh Temple.

Dora Caro moved to Canada three years ago from Peru to be closer to her daughter and granddaughters in Williams Lake.

Nana Kobayashi moved to Williams Lake in January 2020 when her husband got a job with the Tsilhqot’in National Government. She moved to Canada from Japan in 2017.

Horacio Duran came to Canada from Mexico and has been studying with the program since 2019.

The COVID-19 pandemic has hampered some of the socializing the students were used to enjoying, so even though it was windy and cool while they got together, they were all smiling and joyful and pleased to learn how easily it was to create something so beautiful.

READ MORE: Our Hometown: Advocating for literacy



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Monica Lamb-Yorski

About the Author: Monica Lamb-Yorski

A B.C. gal, I was born in Alert Bay, raised in Nelson, graduated from the University of Winnipeg, and wrote my first-ever article for the Prince Rupert Daily News.
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