RED ROCK – The students in the Grade 1/2 class at St. Hilary Catholic School were praised by the community for their work in helping raise money for the community’s recreation centre.
Teacher Kim Wright said that the decision to do the fundraiser came when the class was learning about the three pillars of Lent which include prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, which is the practice of giving back to the less fortunate.
“They're in Grade 1/2, so they don't know what [almsgiving] means, so, we talked a lot about trying to be the best people we can be all of the time, but more specifically during the season of Lent.”
“So, we had a big brainstorm one day about how, what could we do to give back to our community? To do a little bit more during that Lent season.”
Wright encouraged her students to think about something in the community that they use often but might not have a lot of support, and she said that one of her students suggested the gym at the rec centre as some of the equipment has begun to age.
Wright said that when brainstorming ideas, the students were excited and came up with a multitude of ideas, but the class eventually decided to make and sell bracelets to help raise money.
“It worked out because we had just finished learning about money, so they got to put their little knowledge of money and their math skills to work, and we hosted a little sale at school,” said Wright.
“We turned our classroom into a store, and they made posters, and we invited the school to come and purchase these bracelets and then anything that wasn't sold, we reached out to the local grocery store and asked if they could sell the remaining bracelets there.”
In total, the bracelet fundraiser raised $178, and the Township said it will use these funds to purchase more equipment for youth to be used at the Recreation Centre Gym.
Wright said that seeing her students’ enthusiasm for the fundraiser made her feel great as a teacher and she was glad to see her students have learned how important community is.
“Part of my job is to help them be members of their community too, right? And it iust felt nice that they were so excited to be like, we did this,” she said.
“Not only did we raise this money, but they spent days making these little bracelets and just to see their joy and their face when they would finish a bracelet and be like, I'm done, I'm going to make another one and how proud they were to sell those bracelets was really, really nice.”
Wright said that for any other young people who are looking to make a change in the community a great way to start is by thinking about what you like in the community that could use a little help.
“The one thing I told my students was to think about something you enjoy and that you're passionate about and that's what's gonna make you motivated to want to do these things, right?” she said.