Community 'hugs' Georgetown Elementary to offer support

Georgetown Elementary School got a much needed symbolic hug on Sunday as community members rallied to try and save the school from closure.

The community came together the last time the school was recommended to close in 2009. Given that previous support, Sunday's event was called Hug2.0.

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"It's hard to come back, but we did it the first time, so hopefully we'll be able to do it again,"said former Georgetown student Tori Billard, who also participated in the 2009 event.

Mallory Peters of the Georgetown Home and School Association said organizers counted between 475 and 500 people.

Supporters wearing yellow ribbons, shirts and pins stood around the school in a circle to hug it. Yellow is Georgetown's school colour.

"It's exhausting to continually have to be fighting for your school that you know belongs here,"said Therese Mair, a teacher at Georgetown who also went there as a child.

"And, it's every citizen's right to have a school that's in their community that their children can go to. So, we should not have to fight for it, it should be just given. We are a town, we need to have a school."

Fewer than 50 students

Georgetown is one of five schools the province has recommended for closure. The other schools are Belfast Consolidated, St. Jean Elementary in Charlottetown, St. Louis Elementary and Bloomfield Elementary.

Georgetown has 49 students, which is about half the number of students it had in2009. Forty-nine students represents 28 per cent of the school's capacity.

The Georgetown Elementary Home and School Association is working on areport to show the P.E.I. Public Schools Branch why theschool should remain open.

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