More students in the Greater Victoria school district can aim for the stars with the donation of 30 telescopes by the Victoria Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.

Centre president John McDonald presented the telescopes to Greater Victoria board of education chairman Tom Ferris, who said they will be put to good use around the district. The telescopes will be distributed to Grade 8 classrooms.

"Anything you can do that inspires confidence in students and teachers around science is a good thing," Ferris said. "To have a resource like this in your classroom makes a big difference."

Ferris said the Victoria group has been active in the school district for many years.

In fact, its School Telescope Program has been in place since 1994, with members providing speakers for classroom presentations, giving research material to teachers, and taking students and their families on night outings to view the sky.

Ferris said the donated telescopes have to be assembled by the students. They also include curriculum materials.

"They're kits, so the students put it together. It's a hands-on learning tool as well as an instrument."

Similar donations are taking place with other astronomy groups around the world to commemorate 2009 being designated the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations. This year it's significant because it marks the 400th anniversary of Galileo's pioneering efforts in expanding the knowledge of the universe.

Grants offered to local farmers

Local farmers are in line for grants to improve their operations, thanks to the support generated by this year's Defending Our Backyard food festival.

The spring event featuring farmers, winemakers, brewers and others brought out more than 1,000 people, and helped the Island Chef's Collaborative raise money for its Farmer Grant Program. The program seeks to support those seeking to extend their growing seasons or to increase their operation's output and variety of produce.

About $20,000 in grants has been distributed through the program since 2006.

Applications for the next round of grants must be received by Jan. 1. They can be sent to Farmer Grant Program, Island Chef's Collaborative, P.O. Box 30164A, Saanich Centre postal outlet, Victoria, B.C., V8X 5E1.

For application guidelines, go to www.iccbc.ca.

Burn victim boosts hospital

The Royal Jubilee Hospital burn unit has received a heartfelt contribution, inspired by a woman who says she owes her life to the treatment she received there.

Casie Coleman, who was badly burned in a barn fire at North Saanich's Sandown Park 10 years ago, travelled from her home in Ontario to Vancouver's Fraser Downs this month for a fundraising event to support the Royal Jubilee unit. The event, which marked B.C. Breeders Classic Day, raised $24,000.

The money was presented to the Victoria Hospitals Foundation last week by Jackson Wittup, director of racing at Fraser Downs.

The Surrey-born Coleman was a teenage groom at Sandown when she suffered her burns, which sent her to Jubilee for three months and led to six skin-graft procedures. Coleman went on to become the first female to win an O'Brien Award, earned for being Canada's trainer-of-the-year in harness racing.

She won in both 2005 and 2006.

Seniors' home to get generator

Plans for recently completed Sluggett House -- a facility for seniors with dementia -- called for the installation of a generator to ensure a source of power in the event of an outage.

Lack of funds, however, meant the generator wouldn't be purchased until next year.

When members of the Brentwood Bay Rotary Club heard about the situation, they decided to donate the money to ensure the generator was in place right away. Close to $4,900 was given to Beacon Community Services, which owns and operates Sluggett House, at the club's regular meeting last week.

Sluggett House, which has room for 16 residents, is named for the pioneering Sluggett family, who donated the land where the facility was built. The Vancouver Island Health Authority provides $434,000 for annual operating costs.

Bookstores help homeless

Eight Victoria bookstores have joined up with Grade 5 students at Cloverdale Traditional School and the Salvation Army to collect and package basic essentials for people in need this Christmas.

The list of things being collected until Dec. 12 includes toothbrushes and toothpaste, deodorant, bars of soap, small bottles of shampoo and hand sanitizer, new socks and gloves, and non-perishable food items. Collection points are Books on View, Cadboro Bay Book Company, Chronicles of Crime, Fairfield Bookshop, Russell Books, Shepherd Books, Snowden's Books and Tall Tale Books.

Cloverdale students will put the collected items together into packages for distribution by the Salvation Army.