P.E.I. Easter Seals school fundraising tour wraps 'with happy tears'

It's been an exciting week for P.E.I. Easter Seals ambassador Vaeda Matheson.

She wrapped up her fundraising tour of Island schools Wednesday with her last stop at her own school, West Kent Elementary in Charlottetown.

"We just finished doing the tour and I'm really sad," Matheson said. "It's really fun and exciting." 

She said her favourite parts of the tour were hanging out with friends she invited on the tour bus, eating free food and "going to all the schools and seeing those little kids smile."

Matheson has been ambassador for two years because of the pandemic and hadn't done a school tour in that time.

'Helping other kids'

Matheson lives with cerebral palsy.

She has been visiting each school on the Island over the last week, collecting donations to help Island children with disabilities.

"It feels really nice that I know I'm helping other kids," she said. 

West Kent raised the most money for Easter Seals of any school: more than $6,000. 

"I was really shocked.... I was crying so hard," Matheson said. "With happy tears though." 

"West Kent was really, really emotional for me," she said, because she is close with her classmates who were all there dancing, singing and cheering her on with hand-printed signs. 

"Whenever I'm in a bad mood, all my classmates would cheer me up and I would think on the bright side, so I just want to give a shout-out to my class, 5A."

She also thanked her teacher, principal, vice-principal and P.E.I. Education Minister Natalie Jameson, who joined Matheson on the tour for a day.

Tim Hortons on P.E.I. has sponsored the tour for the last 41 years.