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Columneetza students work to make a difference

The gift of giving. Students are making a difference in their school, community, and around the world.

The gift of giving. Students are making a difference in their school, community, and around the world.

The leadership students at Columneetza secondary have been working very hard at making a difference in all areas of life!

As the leadership teacher, I am extremely proud of what they have been organizing and accomplishing and I feel the community of Williams Lake needs to know the positive contributions these students are making.

Regardless of many small setbacks and frustrations, these students that I have had the pleasure of working with are still determined to make a difference in their school and beyond.

Since September, our leadership class has been organizing events and fundraisers that have benefited our school, staff, community and the International community.

To start, our class organized a “Pay to Play” to challenge the students to bring in as much change as possible in exchange for free time during class.

The students would count and roll the change and as long as they were counting and rolling, the students would get free time during class. This was a great motivator for them to bring in as much change as possible.

The first “Pay to Play” was in October and the $300 raised was donated to the “CIBC Run for the Cure” toward breast cancer.

Throughout the month of November, we held multiple fundraisers for prostate cancer, such as No Shave November Student vs. Teacher contest. It was an extremely close race, but the students were determined to win and in the end they were allowed to throw whip cream pies in the face of participating staff.

In total, staff and students raised more than $640 that was donated to “No Shave November” toward prostate cancer research.

Later in the month, we hosted a fabulous talent show that included both CSS and WLSS students. The talent was absolutely amazing with many standing ovations.

In total we raised more than $957, $850 of which is being donated to build a well in India.

We have also been working very hard at being positive influences and good role models in our school. On Nov. 30, we put up Post-it notes with a positive phrase on every single locker in the school, as well as on teachers’ doors, in the office, and in the hallways. When the students came back to school the next day, they each found one of these notes on their lockers to help brighten their day. Some students and teachers have even kept them to this day.

For the month of December, we were determined to donate all of our fundraising efforts to the Cariboo Memorial Hospital Foundation toward a digital mammography unit. We had many events, such as giant stocking guess, candy cane grams, game night and on the last day we organized our first Christmas pancake breakfast for our staff and students.

With generous donations from Margetts Meats, Safeway, Real Canadian Wholesale Store, and Save On Foods, we were able to make this first breakfast a great success. Regardless of the many trips to the grocery store, we were able to make close to $550. In the end, the students will be donating $600 towards the mammography unit.

The other two fundraisers we took on were the gift/toy drive with many classes making big differences to teenagers ages 13-17 years old and a food drive that saw a back of a pick-up and its interior being stuffed full of boxes of non-perishable food items.

In the end, we want to thank everyone who participated and donated and we would like to wish everyone a very merry Christmas, a happy new year, and a fabulous 2012!

From Robin Fofonoff and the leadership students of Columneetza.

Written by Carina Mutschele and Robin Fofonoff.