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| From Chennai Photo Album 2009 |
Elementary students give to global charity
by Laura Cummings
From children, to children – that was the notion at the heart of one east-end school’s latest charity fundraiser, collecting over $1,000 for an organization that ensures kids get a good night’s sleep.
Orléans’ Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha School officially handed over $1,575 to Sleeping Children Around the World (SCAW) on Thursday, April 30, after weeks of gathering money for the cause, explains principal Marilyn Hanley, an especially impressive amount for “a teeny, tiny school.”
The funding, she continues, will go towards the purchase of 45 bedkits for children in developing nations, and was raised primarily through students doing at-home chores, as well as smaller initiatives like popcorn sales over the Lenten holiday between February and March.
Blessed Kateri has supported SCAW for several years, Hanley recounts, explaining they favour the charity because none of the money raised goes towards administration costs.
“Every penny goes to (the children),” she says, adding they also donated gently-used sports jerseys to kids in India this year.
With students responding “very enthusiastically” to the initiative, Blessed Kateri was able to collect enough money this year to purchase 10 more bedkits than the last, Hanley continues. Grade 6 students also created a PowerPoint presentation about SCAW at the beginning of their fundraising efforts, she explains, making the project that much more accessible.
“Having the kids take a look at where the money’s going makes it more real,” Hanley suggests.
It’s money that’s going to good use, continues SCAW overseas team leader and Orléans resident Tom Belton.
The main mandate of SCAW is the belief that “every child has the right to have a place to sleep at night,” he explains of the organization created by Murray Dryden, father of Hockey Hall of Fame star Ken Dryden, as a retirement project.
The non-denominational, almost entirely volunteer-run group funnels donations into bedkits – comprised of items like mattresses, pillows and mosquito netting, as well as some toiletries, clothing and school supplies – for children in need around the world, Belton continues, with “every penny, every cent” going to the project.
Locations are selected for support after in-depth analysis by SCAW, he recounts, with the majority of items purchased in-country by volunteers working there. Kits are handed out equally between genders and those with varying religious beliefs, Belton explains, and are also often divvied up amongst siblings or passed down in families.
“The need for bedkits is extremely important,” he says, citing the high numbers of HIV-positive or malarial children in many developing countries, in addition to other challenges like poverty and hunger. “To have a few hours of rest, a few hours of comfort, a few hours of warmth (is key). It’s a chance to be peaceful … to prepare for the next day.”
Blessed Kateri has done “a tremendous job over the four years I’ve been involved with them,” Belton continues, acknowledging the school’s ongoing efforts.
Their support is even more poignant considering the similar ages between the school’s students and those they’re helping around the world, he suggests.
“When it comes from children to children, it makes a significant impression,” Belton explains. “It’s a gift of love from the heart.”
For more information, please visit www.scaw.org
