Press Release
Every September, schools across the country volunteer to hold an event called the Terry Fox Run.
Students fundraise for the event and when it’s over, the funds are sent in and that’s that.
Not so at Nestor Falls School, where students and staff decided they would take the Terry Fox Run one step further by dedicating the entire school year to fundraising for cancer research.
The school’s two teachers challenged their 17 full-time students and one JK pupil to raise $2,011 by March 11.
And if the students were successful, one of the teachers would dye her hair blue while the other would shave her head.
In the end, the students surpassed their goal—and teachers Amanda Ogden and Jan Grabowsky held up their end of the bargain to have their hair fashionably altered.
Nestor Falls School students have raised more than $2,100 to date, and will continue to raise funds for this valuable cause until the school year ends.
The staff and students worked on this goal as a team, holding meetings to brainstorm, gathering items that were needed as well as baking, buying, selling, and eating.
But most of all, they were learning to work together, and in the end they all became a team.
The students were overcome by a tremendous feeling of accomplishment and pride for their school.
Back on May 2, a letter was received from the Terry Fox Foundation informing the staff and students that their initial donation of $1,113 from the Run at the beginning of the year put the school in 15th place on its top 20 per capita list for populations under 200.
This news, along with the fact that the donation has nearly doubled since then, provided a great feeling of satisfaction to each and every one of the members of Nestor Falls School.
Within schools of the Rainy River District School Board, students and staff, led by the student councils, actively have practised the “Me to We” philosophy, which originated with Marc and Craig Kielberger.
It is based on a life philosophy offering us a way to live and wisdom that develops over our lifetime.
Specifically, this philosophy embraces the idea that we can build a better life, and an ideal world, through reaching out to others.
The staff and students recognize that living “Me to We” means working towards goals that unite us all in engaging together to create a better world.
