Dave Ogilvie
Last Wednesday (Jan. 27), Sturgeon Creek School in Barwick held a soup and bun lunch for students, their parents, and interested members of the community.
The purpose of the event was to draw attention to the plight of children in Haiti following the earthquake that struck there on Jan. 12, as well as to raise money to ease their suffering.
The morning began with an assembly, during which the Grade 5/6 class presented a slide show of the quake’s aftermath.
Following a few days of research about the disaster, the class put together a series of very touching pictures of the people of Haiti as they tried to cope with the devastation, lack of food, and death in their country.
Accompanied by the song “Lean on Me,” the presentation effectively reinforced the need for immediate action by people around the world.
“We wanted the students to understand why earthquakes happen, how they impact the lives of humans, the difficulties of responding to a disaster of this magnitude and how we, as Canadians, can help,” explained Sturgeon Creek principal Kendall Olsen.
Next, a group of students performed a “Readers’ Theatre”—a dramatic reading that focused on the importance of Family Literacy Day and on the literacy rate in Canada.
The students from Grades 1-8 then finished up with some thoughts and reflections about how the people of Haiti must have felt to see their city and country destroyed by the earthquake.
The students and parents on hand for the assembly then watched a brief CBC clip about Charlie Simpson, a seven-year-old British boy who decided to raise some money for the children of Haiti by riding his bike around his neigbourhood collecting coins in a can.
Someone in his family decided to post the idea on the web—and the response by people around the world has been amazing.
The youngster, with his simple idea of helping those in need, has now raised more than $200,000.
Following the assembly, an excellent meal of soup, buns, carrots and dip, juice, and cookies was served by staff members.
Keeping with the theme of “Giving back to others,” every class participated in the preparation of the meal.
The JK/SK class made the juice, those in Grades 1/2 the buns, those in 3/4 the carrots and dip, those in 5/6 the soup, and those in 7/8 the cookies and dainties.
The students also contributed to the cause by bringing in coins to send to Haiti. Several parents commented over lunch that their children insisted on raiding their own pigging banks.
The entire event certainly was an excellent example of “kids helping kids.”
Together, the staff and students collected more than $1,300.
The money raised will be sent to “Free the Children” and “World Vision,” two agencies that focus on the needs of children in distress.
