Smithfield is Rocking the World

Smithfield Middle School
Etobicoke, Ontario

This is a true story about a group of youth and an amazing teacher who are changing the world: the Smithfield Youth in Action group.

Smithfield was inspired to take action when they learned about a West African country called Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone is the one of the most impoverished countries in the world. The country suffered a brutal 11-year civil

war in which hundreds of thousands of people and children were killed, and many more were orphaned.
 
The civil war destroyed primary schools in many regions of Sierra Leone and, in 1996, it was estimated that 70% of children were not receiving any formal education. The Smithfield youth decided to involve schools around their community to fundraise and build a school in Sierra Leone through Free The Children’s Brick by Brick: Education for All campaign. They hope to raise more than $10,000 by June – good luck!

 

Monarch Park’s International Food Sale

Monarch Park Collegiate
Toronto, Ontario

At Monarch Park Collegiate, the students of Mr. Scolnik's Business Organizational Studies class formed an organization as a class project to achieve their goal of raising $1,000. The class kicked off their fundraising with a successful bake sale and raffle, raising over $500. Looking for a final fundraiser to complete their project and reach their $1,000 goal, the class decided to hold an international food sale, drawing on the multiculturalism of their school for inspiration.
After three events and lots of hard work, the Monarch Park group reached their goal of $1,000 to support the Brick by Brick campaign for Free The Children. Kimy Tang of Monarch Park felt the project went very well: “We had an awesome time fundraising for a good cause and we would definitely do it all over again!”

 

Regional Updates

British Columbia

Schools Building Schools!

Vancouver students decided to reach out to their global community by taking action in their local community high schools. As part of the Vancouver District Students’ Council initiative “Schools Building Schools,” each high school had the goal of raising $1,000 to go towards Free The Children’s schoolbuilding projects.

The students of Vancouver raised $16,800 through events such as bracelet sales, school dances and a Battle of The Bands! One school even went to each social studies classroom to give a presentation about global issues and to get their whole student population engaged and involved. Emily and I had the honour of attending the “Schools Building Schools” celebration event in January, which proved the power of young people to take action!

~Emily and Hilary
emily@freethechildren.com
hilary@freethechildren.com 

Atlantic Canada

Have you ever heard of a “bed-push fundraiser”?! If you haven’t already, you will soon, as I’m pretty confident that it’s going to be the next BIG thing in FUNdraisers! Students from the University of New Brunswick have already raised thousands of dollars for good causes by pushing a bed on wheels from St. John all the way to Fredricton—111 kilometers—in less than 24 hours! How cool is that?!

I’ve spent the last amazing week traveling throughout New Brunswick with the second wave of the Be The Change Tour and the all-incredible Louise Kent, Be The Change Speaker. The response to the tour has been mind-blowing and awe-inspiring as youth of all ages are realizing that it’s never too late to stand up and take action. And boy, the fundraising ideas we’ve heard are incredible: from sock wrestling to speed-walk-a-thons, the East Coast is rockin’!

Keep the updates a’comin y’all!

~Erin

Québec

Hello everyone!

The regional network in Quebec is growing strong – youth from McGill and Marianopolis recently visited the Royal West Academy Youth in Action group. Each group presented their exciting initiatives for these cold upcoming months. In no time, we were warmed up with Level 3 energy and ready to change the world! Ideas included collaborative benefit concerts, an incredible youth conference, a week-long in-school awareness and fundraising project, and performances of Shakespeare’s King Lear – it’s clear that no challenge is too big for our amazing youth to take on!

Talk to you soon, and don’t hesitate to drop me a line!
~ Jaclyn
jaclyn@freethechildren.com