The We Day Club at Spruce Ridge School in Estevan has resumed its efforts to assist the community.
The club held its third annual We Scare Hunger campaign in October to support the Estevan Salvation Army’s Food Bank. A total of 683 items were collected for the Salvation Army.
“We just did a classroom contest to see which class could bring in the most items, and one of our Grade 7 classrooms actually brought in 115 items all together, so they’re our big winners,” said Jody Copeland, who is a learning support instructor at the school.
Results for We Scare Hunger have always been tabulated based on the number of items rather than the weight.
Ashley Piper, a Grade 8 student at Spruce Ridge, was impressed with the amount of food collected.
We Scare Hunger is one of several initiatives planned by the club this year. The students hope to fill shoeboxes for the local Operation Christmas Child campaign, sing Christmas carols for senior citizens and hold a bake sale prior to Valentine’s Day called We Bake for Change.
They also decided to host a mini We Day of their own at the school in 2018, following their trip to the We Day in Winnipeg in late October. Club members travelled to Winnipeg for We Day because the Saskatoon event was cancelled due to a lack of funding.
“We took 17 kids with us in Grades 7 and 8 to the conference,” said Copeland.
Motivational speaker Spencer West and Olympian Sarah Wells were among the guest speakers at We Day in Winnipeg. Musicians Jully Black and Tyler Shaw provided entertainment for the youths.
“It was a lot of fun,” said Ashley. “There was a bunch of different people and they talked about topics that are good for us, and that we need to hear about.”
Copeland added the students heard about local and global initiatives.
Thanks to the messages they heard, the We Day Club wants to host the mini We Day event. While the details have yet to be ironed out, Copeland said the students will take what they learned from We Day Winnipeg, and find local entertainment and inspirational speakers, as well as people who have made a difference in the community.
“We’re still just in the beginning stages of planning,” said Copeland.
It will take some time to plan, she said, and require a lot of work to pull off, but the We Day Club is excited with the opportunity.
