Each year, the students of M.C. Knoll participate in an event called Survivor, where students participate in different challenges and raise money help a different charitable cause, with the students in Grade 7 and 8 staying up all night as part of the event. This year, the students raised funds for Free the Children, in order to help them build a school in Haiti.
The event has different prizes to encourage students to raise money. One of the prizes is principal and vice-principal for a day, this year won by Grade 3 student Zachary Franklin and Grade 4 student Rachel Bartel. Franklin answered emails and phone calls, and the two young administrators also introduced a day where students had to pay twenty-five cents to get water, in order to remind students that it is a privilege to live in a place which has clean water.
"It feels good because I'm helping other people," Franklin says.
He says that in the future he would like to be a principal, because it was a fun day.
Regular principal Tami Hall says that she's proud of the students at M.C. Knoll, and of what they accomplished with their Survivor fundraiser. She says that the event is to have fun and learn about a different thing every year, with this year's event having an Olympic theme, but that the primary goal is to raise money for a worthy cause, and she's pleased to see how her students stepped up to the plate, and thought of innovative ideas to demonstrate the importance of the work of the charity they support.
"I'm just so pleased to see such strong leadership even in our younger students... It makes me so proud that our students care about others, and that they can show such strong leadership, even if they are in Grade 3."
