Members of Burntwood Elementary School’s student council presented Thompson Humane Society president Oswald Sawh with a $500 donation March 27, a sum that represents only about half of the money the council has raised since December through various fundraising efforts.
The members of the council chose the humane society as a local recipient of their school’s generosity, while they also chipped in as part of the global effort to assist the Philippines in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan, which devastated parts of the country last November. Through efforts such as bake sales and donations, Burntwood Elementary School students raised $400 for relief efforts, which was matched by the Canadian government.
The decision was made at that time to also help out a local organization, and the Thompson Humane Society was chosen because the students were familiar with it, since Sawh had brought a dog and cat who were up for adoption to an assembly at the school.
“He told the stories of how the cat was living in a garbage bin,” says student councillor Gianna Dusecina.
“We knew other places weren’t going to do something to help out our humane society,” says student council member Samantha Palaniuk.
Student council members used some traditional favourites and some original ideas to raise money for their worthy causes.
“We had bake sales where we made desserts and we sold them to the kids,” said student council president Lala Nizamani. “We did this for about one month or so. We had bins in the classroom where our classmates would put in money or items. We told them to bring in food so it would go to the food bank.”
When the food for the food bank was delivered, it filled 12 boxes, she said.
Other fundraisers included popcorn sales when a movie was shown at the school and selling photos with Santa Claus.
“We had a dance that was Christmas-themed and I had to dress up as Santa,” said Amy Yurkiw.
The student council also raised money and school pride with mini-tuques in the school’s colours, an idea that went over so well they’ve been asked by students at Juniper Elementary School to teach them how they did it.
“We took yarn and made tuques with toilet paper rolls,” says Hailey Cordell.
Not all good deeds the student council took part in raised money, however. They also did their part to raise awareness, by acting in skits for videos about how to say and hear the word “no” in social situations in the classroom, on the playground and in relationships. The skits focused on how to say and hear “no” in appropriate and inappropriate ways, says Burntwood school counsellor Amanda Devlin, and how to move on and accept being told “no.”
“I’ve been trying to teach my students about conflict resolution,” says Devlin. “That was kind of the context of the video that they did.”
