Fleeing Fort McMurray’s raging inferno was terrifying but it’s led to new friends and a soft landing among welcoming classmates, says Ankita Chaturvedi.
The Grade 6 student is one of at least 97 students from the beleaguered oilsands city now attending University School, 3035 Utah Dr. N.W. that’s created three new elementary classrooms to handle the influx.
“I want to go back to my house but I want to go to school here — it’s fun and kind of an adventure,” said Chaturvedi, 11.
“The students are really nice and teachers, too.”
But getting there wasn’t easy. When the order came to evacuate May 3, the family’s car had no gas and the Chaturvedi’s escaped the flames in friends’ cars.
“We took two pairs of clothes because we thought it’d be a one-day evacuation,” said the girl, sitting in the school’s library with her brother Ashank, eight.
Melanie Carabali was in her school in Fort McMurray when the evacuation order came.
“The sky was orange and red,” said Carabali, 11.
It’s been a hot topic among classmates, she added.
“They want to know how the fire was and how I felt, which was scared, and I didn’t know what was happening,” said Carabali.
From left; Ankita Chaturvedi, Melanie Carabali, Sarah McCormack and Ashank Chaturvedi read books at University School library on Thursday, May 12, 2016. The group are among almost 100 Fort McMurray student evacuees now in class at the northwest Calgary school.
Calgary Board of Education officials say they have counsellors on hand to help any of the 334 evacuee students enrolled in their system troubled by their abrupt exodus and new beginning, said chief superintendent David Stevenson.
“They’re a wonderful group of kids who are eager to learn and happy, though there are a few who are a little overwhelmed,” he said.
“Some of them have gone through circumstances we wouldn’t wish on anybody.”
Principal Kathy Salmon noted her school experienced its own fire-related evacuation last November when part of the nearby Stadium Shopping Centre went up in flames.
“We’ve had a shared bonding experience in a tiny way, the kids in our community can relate,” she said.
It’s been a year of adjustment for the CBE, which has also taken in hundreds of children fleeing the Mideast war, said Stevenson.
“It’s been an unusual year — we’ve had to support them in developing new classrooms and resources, it has been a challenge for us,” he said.
The Calgary Catholic School District has so far enrolled 165 wildfire evacuees but both educational boards expect those numbers to grow.
Stevenson said it’s hard to say how many of the new students will stay for more than a few weeks, adding it’s no secret most of their families want to return home as soon as possible.
“We’re here for as long as they need our support,” he said.
