St. Vital Catholic School in Battleford has an active Me to We group and lately they’ve had goats on their minds.
Inspired by Free the Children’s campaign to open opportunities to families in poverty by providing them with goats, they have already purchased approximately 50 goats, at $50 per goat, and they have a goal to reach at least 100.
The latest fundraising idea they’ve come up with is called the River Walk.
The student behind the idea is Jayde Beasse, a Grade 7 student.
In December, she told the News-Optimistlast week, two speakers from Free the Children, a vast international charity and education group founded by two young Canadian brothers, came to their school.
“They talked to the students and did activities and games about which countries have poverty and which have more and at the end we talked about ways we can fundraise.”
The students came up with four ideas and in the end decided to go with a walk and or run.
A week later, she said, a group of Grades 4, 5, 6 and 7 students got together and talked about what they would call it and how it would be done. Because they decided it would be a walk to the river and back from the school it would be called the River Walk, and it was scheduled for Saturday, May 9.
All the students including pre-kindergarten and kindergarten have been given forms and pledge sheets to take home, said Jayd, and it’s also open to the public.
“It’s family friendly,” said Jayd.
To walk, run, bike or skateboard in the River Walk will cost $5 per individual or $15 per family.
“And donations are accepted,” said Jayd.
It will take place between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. and participants can do their walk, run, cycling or skateboarding anytime during that time period.
The students taking part have been inspired by the Free the Children movement and its fundraising component Me to We.
Billi-Dean Foulston said, “I wanted to do something like this because when I first came to this school this year I went to We Day and they were talking about how we can make a change. When we got back from that, a lot of people wanted to do different things and make a change and that was cool, so I started to help out.”
Ally Rawlyk said, “My first We Day was last year and it made me realize lots of people don’t have as much stuff and lots of people do, and I just wanted to help out to make them feel the way that we do.”
Ashley Hepp was also inspired by We Day.
“Last year I wanted to do a fundraiser for animals around the world and then started to realize it’s not just animals that need our help, it’s humans too.” said Ashley.
Rowan Tkatchuk has been inspired by her experiences when her father became ill.
“It just made me want to help out other people,” she said.
Brooklyn Jenner has also been inspired by losing three people close to her to cancer this year, and by media coverage of poverty and illness in other countries.
“So I wanted to help out have them not get sick.”
Coralee Knowles has seen the same media coverage and commercials for making a change by fostering a child.
“Some people don’t want to make a change and they don’t want to help out, and to me they are just selfish and they want to do stuff for them and not other people.”
Grace Dent also sees too much selfishness.
“When I went to We Day this year, it kind of changed because I saw all those people who need help.”
It’s not right to be asking for more when we already have a lot, she said, but other people don’t even have food or clean water. “We should be helping them instead of asking for more stuff for ourselves.”
Jordan Heintz has always wanted to do be involved in something like she has found with the We to Me club at St. Vital
“When I was little I wanted to sell some of my toys for other kids as a fundraiser.”
Her mom suggested she wait until she was about 10, and she could start something like that.
“I went to We Day last year and they talked about raising money for goats and I felt really inspired so I felt the need that I wanted to make a change,” said Jordan.
She said there have been some bumps along the way but they’ve been having bake sales and have made and sold goat cookies.
“I wanted to start a group that would help me raise money,” said Jordan. “I used to think you could only be up top to raise money but then I found out it was all at my fingertips and that I had the power to start a group like Goat Girls, with me as the founder and my two co-workers Hannah and Ashley.”
The first batch of goats has gone to Haiti and next batch to Kenya, said teacher and We to Me leader Kelly Waters.
She added that when We to Me first formed, the members made a decision that for every dollar that went to global child poverty issues, a dollar would also go to a local cause, such as the food bank.
Jayd said on the River Walk form, it indicates sponsors can also designate their donation to the local food bank or milk program.
Goats have become a theme throughout the school, and a bulletin board near the library displays the progress of the goat-buying project.
Ally said, “We were in the middle of talking about goats and raising money for goats,” so she thought, why not have goat valentines for Valentines Day this year? The idea took off and everybody started looking for goat pictures and goat sayings, she said.
Goat Girls co-founder Hannah Kopp said she was so inspired by being part of Goat Girls that, at home, she began to do some research. Through that research, she found she would also like to get involved in another Free the Children campaign, We Are Silent.
Hannah, Coralee, Rowan, Brooklyn, Billi-Dean and Grace organized and wrote a We Are Silent presentation they shared with the other classes in their school Thursday.
By taking part in moments of silence Thursday, said Jayd, they were giving a voice to others who don’t have a voice.
Jordan added those without a voice include victims of bullying and people who are depressed or who have suicidal thoughts.
Billi-Dean said, “We are silent so we can give others courage that don’t have voices to speak up.”
The international movement of Me to We began with the two brothers who founded Free The Children, an international charity and educational partner believing in a world where all young people are free to achieve their fullest potential as agents of change.
Through their work with Free The Children, Craig and Marc Kielburger saw how every great change begins with small, positive actions—and how such actions not only help humanity as a whole, but transform the life of the individual taking action. With input from the world’s leading experts on social action, they turned this idea into a philosophy of social entrepreneurship to support Free The Children’s work at home and abroad.
Through Me to We individuals may learn from speakers who carry a message of action and hope, develop leadership skills for global change, provide consumers with better choices for a better world, even travel to help build schools.
In addition, Me to We is also structured to offset Free The Children’s expenses and help provide pro bono services to its efforts. Since 2009, Me to We has donated $4 million to Free The Children through cash and in-kind donations.
We Day is an annual stadium-sized event that brings together world-renowned speakers and performers, and it has been attended by many students from the Battlefords. To be able to attend, students must earn a ticket. Through the year-long We Act program, schools and groups take on one local and one global action and report to Free the Children to earn their way to We Day.
We Day Saskatchewan 2014 took place in Saskatoon Nov. 7, attended by 15,000 youth.
