GUELPH – Grade 12 students from the Upper Grand and Wellington Catholic district school boards are working hard to organize a big fundraising gala.
The student-led Imagine Charity Gala is on Jan. 21 at the River Run Centre in Guelph, from 6 to 10pm.
Students in the Beyond Borders leadership development program have organized a range of entertainment, including performances and motivational speakers.
They’ve set up a silent auction, a 50/50 draw, and professional catering of appetizers and deserts.
And they’ll serve local Planet Bean coffee and other drinks, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic.
Ambitious goal
Student Mary Brander said the students’ goal of $150,000 is based on “data and information from previous years that have done really well.”
Students have organized a charity gala every year since the leadership program launched in 2012. The largest amount raised at a gala is $129,000.
“We think we can do better,” Brander said. “We kind of treat it like a competition, trying to raise more than the previous year.
“It helps with the passion, trying to raise that amount.”
Student Simon Monterroza Prieto said “if we work hard, if we stay motivated, I think we will get it.”
The students are “thinking above and beyond” in terms of different sponsorships and items for the auction in order to reach their goal, Brander said.
They’re “expecting around 700 people” to attend, she added, which would fill the River Run auditorium.
The charities
When it came to choosing beneficiaries of the gala, students each “suggested charities that they thought would be great options,” and put together a list of possibilities, said student Mavis Carberry.
“We wanted to support many different causes – charities both in the local community and the global community.”
Together they narrowed the list down to four: the Children’s Foundation of Guelph and Wellington, the David Suzuki Foundation, the Make Your Mark Foundation and the Foundation of Guelph General Hospital.
The Make Your Mark Foundation formed after 10-year-old Kayla Chadwick died due to sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) in 2019. The foundation raises money to support funding and research for SUDEP.
“Kayla Chadwick was friends with a couple of people in the program – she did dance with them,” Brander said. “So this foundation is really in our hearts.”
Students chose to support Guelph General Hospital because of the strain it has been facing since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
They chose the David Suzuki Foundation because they care about the environment and international issues.
The Children’s Foundation of Guelph and Wellington was chosen because the students “support the future leaders, and the future Beyond Borders students, and the future people of our community,” Brander said.
Some of the money raised will also go towards supporting the Beyond Borders Leadership Program, “so no students are unable to do the programming due to fees,” Brander noted.
The program
Beyond Borders is a four-credit program for selected students across the two local school boards, “with essentially the idea of producing students with an enhanced understanding of leadership and business,” Carberry said.
They meet for non-traditional classes at Tytler Public School in Guelph. Monterroza Prieto said the classes are very different from any he has taken before, sometimes getting “a little chaotic” without a pre-planned schedule.
Through their work in the program students earn credits in “math, world issues, business leadership, and understanding the global community,” Carberry said.
Carberry’s favourite thing about the program is “the people, 100%.
“We are kind of like a big family because we get to spend so much time together.”
Brander said the focus of the Beyond Borders Leadership Program is on experiential learning with hands-on experiences, like their trip to New York to visit the stock exchange and the United Nations headquarters.
To participate in the program students go through an application process including an interview.
The program is limited to 50 students maximum, with 43 participating this year. It is taught by Mike Parsons, Matthew Mulhern and Cynthia McQueen.
The gala
“The Imagine Charity Gala is our culminating event,” Brander said, with all students in the program spending six weeks putting it together.
Carberry added, “We all worked really hard for this and will continue to work really hard until Jan. 21 is over with.”
“We run it like it’s a business,” Brander noted, with students taking different roles in the organization.
Brander is the chief editor and also creates advertising for the event.
Monterroza Prieto is on the operations entertainment team and his work involves hiring performers. He is looking forward to the first dress rehearsal.
“Seeing it all come together is what I’m super excited for,” Monterroza Prieto said.
Carberry is on the operations team – “we source all the decorations, food, silent auction, that sort of thing.
“It’s looking to be a pretty huge silent auction,” Carberry noted, as “many things have been donated from many different local businesses.”
For decorations “we are going with an enchanted garden theme – hoping to have a canopy with different vines” she said.
“Just make it a really magical event.”
Entertainment during the gala includes performances from professional dancers and singers, some of whom are students in the Beyond Borders program.
Monterroza Prieto is especially looking forward to the performance from Andrew McPherson, a two-time Canadian Music Award winner and Juno nominee, best known for work with his band Eccodek.
Monterroza Prieto is also excited to hear Wali Shah perform spoken word poetry and to enjoy performances from “smaller local artists as well.”
The motivational speakers include Mike Pearse, who the students met when they went to Camp Tawingo in Muskoka.
“When he spoke to us it just really impacted us. It was the best talk I’ve ever heard,” Brander said.
“It made us really reflect on our life choices.
“We wanted him to perform at our gala especially because it’s called ‘Imagine’ and he really made us imagine what we could do.”
The students chose the name of the event because it asks people to imagine what they can do, said Carberry – “we kind of wanted something that doesn’t have any boundaries.”
More information is available on Beyond Borders’ Imagine Charity Gala website.
The event is open to all ages other than infants. All attendees, including children, need a ticket to attend.
Tickets are $75 each and available through the River Run website. Guests are encouraged to wear formal attire.
