Scarborough students help Haiti.
Heron Park Junior Public School's Haiti relief efforts have been lead by Mrs. Amodeo, back row left, Saiyara Nayeem, Babatola Ajayi, Josh Collins, Destyni Barham Hoo-Sang, Farida Jamshid, Ms. Parker, Mrs. Maharaj, Trionna Greaves, middle row left, Kayla Thompson, Niresa Hassan, Rashmi Jayaram, Ruwayda Ibrahim, Alyssa Bhagwandin, front row left, Altaaf Sivarooban, Jonah Bijou , Allysa Lucero, Shiyan Hassan andAmar Hussein.
Photo/COURTESY
At 330 students, Heron Park Junior Public School isn't the biggest school on the block. But even though the JK to Grade six school may be on the small side, the students and staff recently proved that even a small pebble can make a big splash.
Heron Park recently raised $700 for the Canadian Red Cross as part of a week-long fundraiser to help the rebuilding and humanitarian efforts in earthquake-ravaged Haiti.
The event took place at the end of January, following the 7.0 magnitude quake killed more than 200,000 and injured hundreds of thousands more on Jan. 12.
The idea came to fruition when two of the school's teachers and a Grade 1 student decided they wanted to help out Haitians any way possible. The next order of business was to figure out how the money would be raised.
After mulling over some ideas, Grade 1 teacher Kristin Amodeo said they decided the most practical thing to do was to sell hot chocolate and popcorn during the morning and afternoon recesses. She said it was a big hit.
"The initiative was very well received by our school community," she said in an email. "We have a small school at only 330 students, so that means on average every student participated. Several teachers even bought hot chocolate for their entire class."
Amodeo said between staff and students, the average donation was $2 each, which further proves the point that a little can go a long way.
The school continually looks for ways to give its students leadership and community service opportunities, and on top of their Haitian relief efforts, they have also worked with the Terry Fox Foundation and local food banks.
"All the people who were a part of the initiative worked very hard to achieve the goal - popping and bagging popcorn can be very time consuming," she said.
The ripples of Heron Park's efforts will be felt even more, because the federal government will match their donation, doubling it to $1,400.