Sleeping Children Around the World facts presented at Palgrave Public School
By Jon Yaneff

Wayne Cowell, chair of the Sleeping Children Around the World (SCAW) committee of the Rotary Club of Palgrave, and Dave Dryden, the chair of SCAW, were in a sea of children during a presentation last Tuesday at Palgrave Public School, talking to the students of the needs of children in other countries. The Rotary Club matches the donations made by the school toward SCAW.

A very passionate Dave Dryden was teaching students at Palgrave Public School the importance of Sleeping Children Around the World (SCAW) last Tuesday.

The former NHLer, and older brother of hockey legend Ken Dryden, was very elaborate while making students aware of the needy children in deprived countries and their need for sleep.

Dryden had shown the kids the bedkits that have been donated and sent to Kolkata (in India), which typically contain a mat or mattress, pillow, sheet, blanket, mosquito net (if applicable), clothing, towel and school supplies. He added the bedkit contents do vary from country to country, depending on local needs. These are donated to children of any race and/or religion, typically located in underdeveloped countries such as in Africa.

A $30 donation (Canadian) makes it possible to provide a bedkit. They are also made in the countries where they are distributed, eliminating transportation costs, and meaning provision of materials and labour at minimal cost, employment for families in the country, as well as assistance to the local economy and the country as a whole.

"Every single cent, so 100 per cent of donations goes toward bedkits," said Wayne Cowell, chair of the SCAW committee of the Rotary Club of Palgrave. "All of us want to make a difference in the world."

Dryden, chair of SCAW, also presented a slide show of pictures from a 2005 trip to Tanzania, Africa, where a SCAW team, including himself, delivered bedkits to children.

SCAW was founded by Dryden's parents, Murray and Margaret, in 1970 and has raised raised more than $20 million to provide bedkits for over 800,000 children in 32 countries.

The school will have a dress-down pajamas day Jan. 29, where in exchange for the freedom, students have the opportunity to donate loonies, toonies or any spare change to support SCAW.

"School presentations for SCAW started about 30 years ago," said Dryden. "Service clubs and individuals contributed to the cause at first, but the schools became very interested."

Dryden said children helping children is a skill that has to be taught to children so they can empathize with others around the world less fortunate than themselves.

"The more they can really understand what kids are going through around the world, then it just develops a child in a way that normally doesn't happen," he said. "That's why I'd love to get this program into as many schools as possible."

Dryden said last year SCAW, had presentations in more than 200 schools across Ontario.

The last slide of Dryden's presentation referred to a quote about priorities that was originally inserted in a wallet given to Dryden by his grandchildren, which read, "A hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove, but the world may be different because I was important in the life of a child."

"It's very powerful and shows children the message that making a difference is huge in people's lives and there's no better place to make a difference than a child's life," he said.

Dryden and a SCAW team are scheduled to be in India this month to provide bedkits and spread the joy of sleep to needy children of that country.