Music: {allcanada} Shania Twain Opens "Shania Kids Can Clubhouse"

Monday, October 6, 2014

{allcanada} Shania Twain Opens "Shania Kids Can Clubhouse"

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Shania Twain has a lot going on. Professionally, she has a new album and tour in the works. But outside of her career, she has launched the Shania Kids Can Clubhouse in her native Ontario, Canada. The program will provide $100,000 a year for four years to the Sir Winston Churchill Public School in Brampton, Ontario, for enrichment programs for at-risk students.

“I used to feel insecure and inadequate because I wasn’t prepared for the school day — maybe I didn’t have money to participate in a field trip, or sometimes I didn’t have the right clothing — so I’d love to eliminate that experience for any child,” she told Toronto Star. “I did not look forward to primary school, maybe because I sometimes was wearing rubber boots in winter and I was cold, or my mother didn’t have enough money for groceries and I didn’t have lunch — I was often hungry all day.”

As part of the program, children will receive free tutoring, healthy snacks, recreational programs and life skills coaching. Twain brought the good news to students in person on September 19. The school had seen a number of hard times in recent years, including a student dying in a house fire and a 9-year-old dying from a stray gunshot while sitting in his home.

“With what our school community has experienced in the last couple of years, this visit today is more than a great … it is also a fresh start for us,” Principal Kristin Bergen says. “[It's] a boost of morale and a sense of momentum as we move into a new school year.”

Shania Kids Can Clubhouses are also open in other locations across Canada and in Las Vegas. For more information, including donation information, visit www.shaniakidscan.com.

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