INNISFAIL – Students at St. Marguerite Bourgeoys Catholic School are helping make a difference in the world.
A total of 32 students in two Grade 3 classes came together to vote on a special organization, and to learn about it and complete a class project.
They had a choice of several non-profit groups to choose from, including the Red Cross, the United Nations and the World Wildlife Fund.
“They voted on which one was their favourite and which one meant the most to them. They chose the World Wildlife Fund,” said teacher Dana Lacombe, noting the project was part of their global citizenship class.
“Learning about global citizenship is part of the curriculum,” she said. “(They learn about) how they can take care of others and the world, different ways the world is impacted and different ways that they can help to be better global citizens.
“They learned about that through fundraising and doing something for somebody else,” explained Lacombe.
Students learned valuable information and important lessons throughout the process.
“We decided to do a fundraiser so they thought about all the ways they could do a fundraiser and they decided to do a bake sale,” she said, noting students each brought in bake sale items and ran the fundraiser on their own.
They raised a total of $350 from the two-day bake sale, with all proceeds going towards the World Wildlife Fund.
Lacombe said she was impressed with how students in both classes took charge, organized and fulfilled their responsibilities.
“I gave them different jobs to do. One job was classroom liaison,” said Lacombe. “Students had to get together and go classroom to classroom, let everybody know about our fundraiser and why they were doing it.”
Other jobs included an administration team that organized meetings and a marketing team that created posters for advertising the fundraiser.
Two of the students who worked on the project were Spencer Mellroy and Savana Clarke.
“We learned about different organizations like the Red Cross, World Wildlife Fund and Free the Children,” said Clarke. “We talked about different ways to give and decided we would like to have a bake sale fundraiser and donate the proceeds to the World Wildlife Fund."
Mellroy said being a global citizen carries a special responsibility -- taking care of others and the earth.
“It was really fun and it felt good to give back," said Mellroy.
Lacombe said students received a certificate for their help in protecting endangered species and their habitat, and enjoyed giving a voice to the animals of the world.
“The part (of the project) about endangered species really hit home to their hearts. To know there are animals that are dying that will never come back again,” said Lacombe. “They wanted to be a part of that and help with that situation.”
