ROCKWOOD – Harris Mill Public School here is raising money to contribute to aid efforts during the Australian bushfire crisis.
The initiative stemmed from a lesson on current events in Emily Loewen’s Grade 5/6 class the first week of January.
“They picked out something they were interested in and just went on,” Loewen said. “They’re really taking ownership of their own learning and putting their passion into what they’re learning about.”
The students brainstormed what they could do about the bushfires in Australia.
“We are raising money for Australia but mainly we are raising money for two places because we couldn’t decide on one,” said student Alexandra Roberts. “We are raising money for Wildlife Victoria and Find A Bed.”
Wildlife Victoria is distributing funds to help rebuild animal enclosures and equipment and to help those treating animals post-fire.
Find A Bed helps to match people who have spare beds with people who are displaced due to bushfires.
In the recovery and rebuilding stage Find A Bed is helping people find new houses and make them feel like homes.
Loewen’s class created posters, did morning announcements, went class-to-class and sent out newsletters to let the school know about their fundraiser and to provide information about the bushfires in Australia.
“We were doing newsletters to go home with the kids to their parents … so we really have to make our letters sound important and use good words,” said student Ariana Upal.
“So that was interesting because usually when I write stuff it’s not really official.”
With the announcements and posters, the students were trying to get the school’s attention.
“Announcements aren’t supposed to be boring; if you want people to do something you need to make it fun,” said student Griffin McKee.
The students asked everyone in the school to donate two dollars for the cause.
“I think they’ve been responding really well,” said student Heidi Smits.
“We’ve been having a lot of kids stop in and then of course we have people who go around to each class and collect the money.”
Loewen said some students have been emptying their piggy banks to donate and others have been doing chores around the house so their parents will give them money to donate to the cause.
The class that raises the most money will win a hot chocolate party.
As of Jan. 27, Loewen’s class had raised $649. 85.
The fundraiser will run until the middle of February with a real push occurring on and around Valentine’s Day (Feb. 14.)
“There’s another teacher in the school and she runs a spirit club so she was hoping to do candy grams and our classes we’ve kind of collaborated, and that’s our new one coming up,” Loewen explained.
“They’ll be bringing new announcements to advertise for the candy grams and … they all signed up for shifts to be able to sell them.
“Candy grams are $2 and all of that money goes towards our fundraiser too and then we kind of decided to do a bake sale as well, so money for that will be donated.”
This is Loewen’s first time doing a fundraiser of this sort with a class.
“I think it’s been really awesome … how student driven it is and I couldn’t be prouder of them,” she said.
