Giving back, having fun, and teaching children to BE the community

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The M.O.O.S.E Society, Ecole St. Mary’s fundraising parent group, recently took on a task to turn the school’s halls into a massive domino game. During a school council meeting, a parent brought up the idea to do a cereal box fundraiser for the Whitecourt Food Bank after seeing a video on YouTube. In the online clip, staff lined up the boxes like dominoes and then gave the breakfast train a little push. The idea was a hit. Twenty-four hours later, the parents in the M.O.O.S.E Society were hard at work to make it a reality.

For the next month, students and teachers brought in cereal boxes of all kinds. M.O.O.S.E Society President Tiffany Fath said the fundraiser went very well. “We didn’t have an idea in mind of how many cereal boxes would be raised, but the final number definitely blew everyone’s minds.” Considering Ecole St. Mary School only houses 343 students and 20 certified teachers, the final number of 1229 cereal boxes is most definitely mind-blowing!

Principal Sarah Whelen said the fundraiser enabled children to live their faith by being like Jesus and connected them to their community. “Everybody came together and had a hand in it. It is the idea that it takes a village. As often as we can, we do fundraisers in our school. This was a great one. It tied right into our Mark 5.” Each year, staff focus on one of five marks, and this fundraiser worked perfectly for this year’s focal point. “The marks are Grounded in a Christian Anthropology, Imbued with a Catholic World View, Animated by a Faith-Infused Curriculum, Sustained by Gospel Witness, and the last one, which directly connects to the fundraiser, Shaped by a Spirituality of Communion.”

On Friday, April 23, the boxes made their way outside the teacher’s classrooms and out into the hallway, where they got placed into an extensive, breakfast-themed domino line. “We learned the hard way when we started setting up down in the kindergarten area because we upset the boxes two or three times, even as adults,” laughed Whelen. So rather than have the students in the hallway watching it live and potentially disrupt the line-up of boxes, and also because of COVID restrictions, they decided to do things a bit differently. “We set up a Google Meet for the teachers to show in their classrooms, and we had our Vice-Principal video the live stream so that the kids could see everything from start to finish from the kindergarten wing up through to the other end of our wing and then down to the front doors.”

Fath said that the students were so excited to watch it. “They could not believe how much cereal was in the hallway. I think it is so awesome. It just goes to show how great the school community is and how we can all come together and do something for other people,” she explained. Fath said that she saw a lot of Cheerios in the line-up. As for Whelen, she said that she saw a lot of Captain Crunch and Fruit Loops. “All I want to do is go home and eat cereal now,” she laughed. “I’m craving Captain Crunch.  There is an Eggo cereal with maple syrup! I did not know that! Ha-ha!”

One of the best parts about the fundraiser, aside from the fun and life lessons, was that it did not stop there. “We had sent out a poster to all the other local schools challenging them to fundraise for the food bank, and Central School stepped up and raised 1917 personal care products,” said Whelen. “We anticipated that our school community would rise to the challenge. We had lots of cereal boxes, and Central School decided to do hygiene products because the food bank does need a lot of those, and many people do not think to donate them. They collected shampoos, conditioners, toothbrushes, and toothpaste. It was awesome to see them take on the challenge!”

Between both schools, the donations to the Whitecourt Food Bank were spectacular. “Even at the last minute, as we were finishing off the domino line of cereal boxes, we had a parent bring in 53 more boxes that they had collected from their extended family. It was amazing,” exclaimed Whelen.

She said that one specific student in 3M went all out. “Nearly every day, he was bringing in cereal boxes. We were like, buddy, there’s not going to be any cereal boxes left in the stores for people to shop, ha-ha! He had such a big grin on his face.” Whelen said that the student revealed that he had recruited as many family members as possible to collect boxes. “He wanted to make sure that people in Whitecourt had breakfast to eat.”

Keeping things regular inside their doors was another big plus about the fundraiser because it gave students and staff something to focus on that did not include the pandemic. It also showed how a small group, such as 343 students, can significantly impact the community when they work together. “The food bank truck had to make two trips to get it all!”

Whelen said that the fundraiser taught the children to be the community and said she is very proud of everyone. “My big thing is that we all have to be the church. It is one thing to go to church, but being the church sometimes is going out of your way and giving back to the community because that is how we model Jesus’s selfless actions. Life is busy, and everybody has things to do, but if you can take five, ten or fifteen minutes to give back to somebody who needs it, you teach kids more in those acts. You are teaching them more in that amount of time than you ever will with a textbook. It is those experiences and giving back that, I think, promote our faith and teach our kids that it’s a big part of who we are not only as Catholic students but as people in our community.”

As for the inner competition that always makes things a bit more exciting, two classrooms earned goodies for their hard work. In first place was 1W, a class with 20 kids. They brought in 175 boxes, earning themselves a pizza party. In second place was 1F for bringing in 133 boxes. Those students will enjoy an ice cream party as their prize.