Scarborough students miss ‘Nutcracker’ because bus never showed
Posted December 15, 2014 3:51 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime for a group of kids from the Danzig community in Scarborough but instead they missed seeing a Christmas classic.
Seventy-six students were given free tickets courtesy of Sun Life Financial through the Share the Magic programme to watch the National Ballet of Canada’s performance of The Nutcracker on Friday evening.
The students, who attend St. Martin de Porres School in the Morningside Road and Lawrence Avenue area, paid for a $6 bus trip to the play.
The two buses from First Student Canada were due at 5:45 p.m. The students waited until 6:40 p.m. before heading back inside the school.
Grade 8 student Danielle Gaynor said she and her friends were hopeful the bus would show up, even as time kept ticking by.
“We were just thinking…we have to go see this,” she said. “This is an opportunity that doesn’t really come [by] us and we never got to go.”
Principal Felice Accogli said that when the buses still hadn’t arrived they called First Student Canada.
“They said buses were on the way,” he explained to CityNews. “We had waited close to two hours and even though the students wanted to even attend the second half, we wouldn’t have made it in time.”
At 7:10 p.m., a bus arrived, but only had enough room to carry half the kids.
Rather than choose which children would go, the entire event was cancelled.
“Needless to say, they were devastated by the news, as were the parents and the staff,” said Accogli.
“Students were extremely disappointed and upset; some younger ones were in tears.”
In a statement to CityNews, First Student Canada spokeswoman Jen Biddinger said, “We are currently conducting an internal review of this incident to determine how this happened.”
In the meantime, the company has contacted the school and the theatre to develop a plan “to correct the situation.”
“Our goal is to provide the students with tickets and transportation to another upcoming performance at the theatre. We intend to make this right.”
The National Ballet says it plans to offer a gift to the children.
“We have a program called Dance About, and that’s where we bring artists into the school and do a performance in their gymnasium,” Lisa Robinson with the National Ballet of Canada said. “We’re hoping to do two performances for this school for all 300 students.”
The National Ballet says it will also treat the children to another production in the spring.
