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Business students champion Nanaimo Aboriginal Centre with fundraising

NANAIMO – Vancouver Island University's masters of business administration program raised money at Woodgrove Centre.
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Dooa Osabi

Students and teachers from Vancouver Island University’s masters of business administration program spent the weekend raising money for the Nanaimo Aboriginal Centre.

Three teams set up shop at Woodgrove Centre between Friday and Sunday, with the aim of raising money for the aboriginal centre’s Aboriginal Childcare Scholarship Fund.

Pooja Khanna, a student and project CEO, and her team, nicknamed the Champions, occupied the centre of the mall Friday, and while they had plans to have a bouncy castle outside the mall, weather prevented it. Nevertheless, her team soldiered on.

“Since the weather hasn’t been that supportive, we have a Plan B. That’s why we’ve added a cotton candy machine ... so we hope that our Plan B works equally as good as our Plan A,” Khanna said.

Nattalle Tessier, MBA internship coordinator, said being that her section is multicultural, fundraising events showcased some of their talent.

“Some of the girls from Saudi Arabia are doing henna designs on the hands,” said Tessier. “They have someone that is doing the threading, so that’s the hair removal for ladies or men, on their faces. Kind of like waxing but it’s a really neat sort of a painless hair-removal method.”

Arabic tea was also being served.

Chris Beaton, Nanaimo Aboriginal Centre executive director, said it was amazing to see the students giving back to the community and helping the centre’s scholarship fund.

“[The fund] helps young people access early-years programs that research tells us leads them to better success in high school and post-secondary themselves,” said Beaton. “So this is really giving back to community and giving back to education and children.”



Karl Yu

About the Author: Karl Yu

After interning at Vancouver Metro free daily newspaper, I joined Black Press in 2010.
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