Community steps up to help robbed Regina school

The lock that was supposed to keep St. Catherine Community School’s bicycles safe is now just twisted and snapped like an angry child’s toy.

Paul Tourigny, the school’s principal, found the lock like that early Thursday. He said he drove up to the school and noticed the right door to the storage container to the east of the school was open, so he went over to investigate.

That container is where the school was keeping the bicycles that had been donated through the Bikes for Kids campaign, done through the United Way and Powerhouse Mortgages DLC.

When Tourigny walked up, he saw that five of the bicycles were missing. So he went inside, called police and then came back out — that’s when he noticed two more had been taken.

A man was spotted riding away on a bicycle nearby. Police say he’s described as a man in his 30s with a heavier build, wearing a grey sweater and tan pants.

Tourigny felt a jumble of emotions when he saw the bicycles were gone.

“Kind of panic or dread, or you know, ‘Oh, the campaign we’re promoting, it’s going to be hurt.’ You just think right away about disappointment. What do we do next? You know, sort of that initial extreme disappointment because it’s something the kids are excited about,” said Tourigny.

The school’s vice-principal, Branelle Zenuk, said she immediately sat down when she found out. She said her first thought went to the kids — they’ve been working hard in school to earn tickets to put into draws for the bikes.

“They come down to the office every day with their tickets to hand in and their smiles are from ear to ear, so I instantly thought about how this is going to negatively impact them,” she said.

Brayden Gaetz is in Grade 8, and he’d been trying to win a bicycle, but not for himself.

“I was really kind of disappointed because I had been trying to win a bike for my little brother, and I wasn’t very happy about it because I know lots of my friends wanted to win bikes and they didn’t really have any or they couldn’t really afford any,” Gaetz said.

There has been an outcry on social media from people in the community and especially parents.

Brayden’s father, John, said he couldn’t believe it when he found out what had happened.

“It just seems so awful that something like that would happen especially so close to home,” he said. “Brand-new bikes for a school and people just come and take them like they’re theirs. (I’m) just shocked, it’s crazy to hear.”

Since the news got out, companies and individuals have come forward to donate to the school. Gaetz arrived at the school Tuesday afternoon with two bicycles in tow. He said he’d been at work.

“I was telling them the story (of the theft) and right away one of the guys said, ‘Go get ’em a bike,’ and I said, ‘OK.’ And another guy said, ‘My company will get one too.’ ”

Tourigny said the school could end up with more bikes for the kids than it started out with. He said it’s nice to have that support.

“It’s a good lesson to the kids how the community gets together when something happens, and I guess something good happens out of it all,” he said.