The global social justice bandwagon recently gained some regional partners in a big way, although it did mean that a bunch of kids lost a lot of sleep over it.
The students at Camilla School in RiviÄŤre Qui Barre held a wake-a-thon on the last weekend in May. Apart from staying awake well past their bedtimes, the nearly 100 students used the popular event to also raise some money for a worthwhile educational project half a world away.
“It was really successful,” said Janet Westworth, the teacher of the leadership class for 25 students in grades 7, 8 and 9. The group organized the event.
How successful? To date, they have brought in more than $10,000.
The kids all collected pledges and all of the funds went toward helping build a school in Sierra Leone through Free the Children, a Canadian-based international charity that works with schools to empower youth to become socially active citizens of their communities and of the world.
The students were inspired to join the cause after attending the organization’s We Day event in Calgary last October. That consciousness-raising effort has been well reported on for having had a similar positive effect on youths in other schools here and in many other communities.
Grade 9 student Ali Runyon said that it was an inspirational moment.
“It touched on things that you wouldn’t really think were happening. It brought it to reality, and how we could actually help.”
The event featured celebrity and activist speakers including Larry King, Martin Sheen, and Spencer West. He’s the double amputee who recently walked on his hands from Edmonton to Calgary to raise awareness and money for clean water initiatives through the We Walk 4Water campaign, another of Free the Children’s initiatives.
“We had to make a commitment to do a project in our community and then a global project,” Westworth continued, detailing how they started braising more than 770 kilograms for the Morinville Food Bank before setting their sights higher and farther aloft. “We’ve decided to take on a social activist’s role with our students. The idea behind leadership is that students learn to become engaged in their school and then their community and then the world.”
Runyon’s classmate Elizabeth Porter explained why it was important to her and the group to undertake this effort for the school in Africa.
“Sierra Leone is in rough shape and we knew that we wanted to do something to help,” she explained.
“They were really struck by the poverty there… and by the fact that they have something so precious – the diamond industry there – and yet they’re so, so poor,” Westworth said.
Riane MacLean was happy to have her first junior high school year turn into such an eye-opening and positive experience. She already has her sights set on going into the leadership class again when she enters Grade 8 in the fall.
The wake-a-thon, she said, was a blast.
“It was a lot of fun. There were some movies, and lots of sports… a game room, video games – I didn’t hang out in there much.”
There was only one hitch in the whole plan: exhaustion. Many succumbed to a lack of energy.
“At about six o’clock in the morning, we had a massive sleep-a-thon until their parents came to pick them up,” Westworth laughed.
But not MacLean.
“All my friends helped me stay awake and I helped them stay awake,” she said. “I didn’t fall asleep.”
Along with that weekend effort, the primary and elementary students also conducted a book-a-thon to help contribute with more funding for the project. Students read books and raised pledges to further the effort.
