Anonymous donor saves the day for a small arts charity in N.L.

The group behind Old School Intergenerational Projects discovered damage to the windows in their converted school bus last week, just before a big snow storm was set to make landfall in Newfoundland and Labrador. (Source: Erin Winsor)

A few shattered windows could well have been the downfall for a small arts charity in Newfoundland and Labrador — before an anonymous donor stepped up to save the day.

The donor sent hundreds of dollars to Old School Intergenerational Projects for the small group to fix several broken windows on an old converted school bus — a bus that is a centrepiece for their charity work.

“It's nice that somebody cared enough and acknowledged the importance of what we're doing enough to want to be able to help us,” said Claire Rouleau, one of the two leaders of the group.

She and her charity partner Erin Winsor discovered last week that someone had beat up a converted school bus — likely with a hammer or another heavy object — that they had parked at a St. John’s, N.L. seniors home.

The pair use their school bus to try to bring the young and the old together — they take the bus filled with arts, crafts, musical instruments and games, to seniors homes across eastern Newfoundland. They also invite families in the area took take their children to meet the seniors.

After years of fundraising and renovation efforts, the bus officially launched in late 2023.

As Newfoundland and Labrador’s provincial government does not provide yearly funding for the small charity, they operate with a very tight budget.

Had the bus sustained damage to several windows on one side of the bus, the bill may have been too much.

“A setback like this could have really sunk us if we hadn’t gotten the help that we now did,” Rouleau said.

After posting a plea for help on Facebook, someone contacted Winsor and offered to help the group out of their problem — so long as the focus remained on the group, and not on the donor, Rouleau explained.

“They said they would come through and cover whatever that number happened to be,” she said.

“We wanted to kind of plaster who they were all over the place and praise them to high heavens. But they said that they just wanted it to stay focused on us being able to continue to do our work and that they were happy not to get any recognition, which is pretty classy,” Rouleau added.

The group only learned about the damage to their vehicle after receiving a call from the nearby seniors’ home. A major storm was heading to St. John’s, leaving them with a few hours to secure their vehicle.

A local glass shop was able to make fixes to the bus in short order.

“The girls worked so hard to bring this charity to fruition,” said Derek Winsor, who helped his daughter Erin with some of the renovation work for the bus. “To see someone just come and take people’s work away, it’s very disheartening.”

The group is currently looking for a safe place with security systems for their bus, preferably inside, if possible.

They made another public call for help in hopes of finding someone that can connect them with a space that suits their purposes.

“We’re looking for it, but we’re not quite finding it yet,” said Rouleau.