Creekside Bar and Grill Fundraiser for Storrington Public School

Jemma Dooreleyers | Nov 20, 2024

When Kyle Gordon, the owner of Battersea’s Creekside Bar and Grill, sat in on a Storrington Public School parent council meeting last year, he heard one message loud and clear. The teachers and parents at Storrington Public School wanted to provide extracurricular activities to the students, but with a student body of approximately 170 kids, the allocation of funds from the government just wasn’t there.

According to the Ontario Government website, funding allocation to schools is determined by a number of factors including student enrollment, the needs of the students within that student body and the school’s geographical needs.

As someone who participated in many extra-curricular sports when he was in school and believes all of his best memories were made while participating in these activities, the fact that the students at Storrington PS have not had the opportunity to utilize an updated library, participate in as many organized sports or have access to music programs that peers in other schools in Limestone District Schoolboard for reasons beyond their control, disappointed and saddened Gordon, not only as a parent but as Battersea community member.

“With a son that goes to the school, I figured I want him to have the best learning tools he can possibly have,” he said at his restaurant on Friday night.

As someone with a unique opportunity to give back to the community, he decided why not help where he can. For every weekend in November (Thursday to Sunday), $5 from every fan favourite meal (such as fish and chips, chicken wings, cheeseburgers or chicken burgers) sold will go to the Storrington extra-curricular fund.

“I just finished my 19th summer and I find myself in a unique spot that I can help. If I have to lose my profit on one item every weekend, I have no problem doing it because I want to give back to the community in some way,” he said.

“Every year I try to choose a cause to give back to, to the community and just figured why not do the school because when we help the children, we are helping everyone in the community, in the present and in the future.”

“My whole goal is to help create opportunities for kids to be doing things kids should be doing.”

On Friday night, with live music playing customers mingling with each other and little kids playing with toys on the ground amongst the tables, it was apparent that the Creekside is a community gathering place for the people of Battersea, Sunbury and Inverary. Every weekend Gordon has a live musician play at the Creek and to foster the love for live music in his community is incredibly important to him.

“Music saved my life, it has a lot of positivity in it,” he said as Friday night’s musician plugged in his guitar and started tuning. Along with music and extra-curriculars, Gordon believes that the opportunities he had to participate in team sports and get involved with his friends, shaped him into the person, the friend and the worker he is today.

“It’s huge to me to create those bonding opportunities and friendships,” he said. “It just seems like kids don’t have the opportunity for that these days and I hope this funding can help with that.”

The goal is to raise $10,000 for Storrington PS’s athletics, music programs and library by the end of the school year. The Storrington Legion donated $1500 to the school’s library on behalf of Creekside last week. There are two weekends left to enjoy a meal with a cause, but stay tuned for other fun fundraising efforts Gordon has planned through out the school year.