A group of Fort Frances High School students raised more than $2,000 last week for victims of the devastating tsunami in South Asia on Boxing Day—and managed to learn a thing or two in the process.
Teacher Shane Beckett and his Grade 11 marketing class organized the fundraiser in an effort to help the children and youth affected by the tragedy.
The plan was to fast for 24 hours, consuming only rations of plain rice and drinking water, as well as to market the event to local businesses and collect donations.
The fast began at 8:30 a.m. on Friday. The participating students attended their classes all day as usual, but met for lunch to have their plate of rice.
Then after school, the group met in the small gym, where they spent the night. The goal was to stay awake all night, but the challenge proved too much for many of them.
By 6 a.m. on Saturday, many were curled up in sleeping bags on the gym floor while others were talking in small groups—trying to keep each other awake.
Jonna Wihnan and Miranda Henttonen, both Grade 11 students, were playing a two-person game of volleyball early Saturday.
Wihnan said they were among the few who hadn’t slept at all, keeping busy by playing games and listening to music. They also had a shower to revive themselves.
“Kids Helping Kids,” as the event was dubbed, also was an opportunity for students to put their marketing skills to work. They designed posters and visited local businesses to ask for donations.
Despite all the hard work in organizing the event, Wihnan said the hardest part was eating only rice for 24 hours. “I can’t wait to go to McDonald’s after,” she remarked.
The group was fed a plate of rice every four hours during the night, but could drink as much water as they liked.
Wihnan admitted she added a packet of sugar-free Crystal Light to her water. “I hate the taste of water,” she noted.
Both she and Henttonen also complained the rice was awful, especially when their teacher did the cooking. “It was sick when Beckett made it,” Henttonen laughed.
Beckett acknowledged the two girls weren’t the only ones complaining about the rice.
“They were miserable about it, but when it was made, they were lining up,” he laughed. “The lack of caloric intake really had an effect on them.”
Ryan York, a Grade 12 student, said he was “pretty tired and hungry, too” by 6 a.m. He’d had about an hour of sleep during the night, and said he skipped one of his rations.
To stay awake, York and some friends played cards a good deal of the night. The students also had access to video games and movies.
York, who is not a student from Beckett’s marketing class, said he had only found out about the event the day before. “The response from outside the class was better than I expected,” Beckett said.
Not all the students in the marketing class could participate, he noted. The event was put together in about a week, and many had work and other commitments.
“There’s some real troopers here,” Beckett remarked, noting some students who stayed overnight had to go to work first thing Saturday morning.
Others who had to work Friday night came by after their shift was over.
Overall, Beckett said he was very pleased with the effort the students showed.
While they still were expecting some donations to come in this week, Beckett said he expected the final total to be somewhere between $2,300 and $2,500.
The students wanted to help kids their own age, so they decided to send the money to the Save the Children Foundation.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
