As staff and students get prepared for the annual break, the UCDSB school communities are ensuring their community members aren’t forgotten over the holidays.
From food drives to angel trees, schools are showcasing compassion, kindness and generosity while still adhering to safety protocols associated with COVID-19. Here’s a round-up of how some of our schools are giving back to their communities this holiday season. Don’t see the school near you? Reach out to your local school to see what they are doing!
Rothwell-Osnabruck School Joins Firefighters for Food Drive
Rothwell-Osnabruck School is taking part in the Ingleside Firefighters Non-perishable Food Drive this year. The school ran a week-long collection and students dropped off their donations into collection bins at the school’s entrances. The participating classes were entered into a draw with the hopes for winning a coveted pizza party.
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Arklan Public School Gives Back to Student Community
Arklan Public School in Carleton Place is taking part in a week-long food and toy drive and ensuring that students drop off their donations in safe ways. Each classroom has a drop box in one corner of each classroom where physical distancing can be maintained, and students are dropping off their items one at a time. Items will be left outside the front doors at designated times for pick up. The donations will go to the local food bank and children in the community.
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Viscount Alexander PS Creates Cards for Seniors’ Home Residents
Mme. Lalonde's Kindergarten classes at Viscount Alexander Public School in Cornwall made beautiful Christmas cards for the residents at Riverdale Terrace this week. Each card included a thoughtful poem and children then used blank space to create their own illustrations and signed their names. The cards will be handed out to residents living at the retirement centre later this month.
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Montague PS Runs Kindness Class Competition
Knowing how kind and caring their student body is on a daily basis, staff at Montague Public School in Montague Township ran a school-wide Kindness Class Competition. The initiative challenges classes to donate new, unwrapped gifts for women and children to support the Lanark County Interval House – an organization that offers emergency and on-going programs to women and children living in or escaping from domestic violence. The school also ran a food drive with plans to donate the non-perishable food items to the Smiths Falls Community Food Bank. Each donated gift earned a class 25 points and the scores are tallied at the end of the week to determine the highest-earning class.
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Front of Yonge ES Suits up for Community Parade
Front of Yonge Elementary School students and staff got festive (and slightly competitive!) when they signed up for the Front of Yonge Township Christmas Decorating Challenge. The school body decorated all the window fronts as part of the community-wide initiative that invites the public to vote for the best decorations after reviewing the entries using a map. Cross your fingers the Front of Yonge ES family gets a winning entry!
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Thousand Islands Elementary School Continues with Annual Food Bank Drive
Each year Thousand Island Elementary School (TIES) supports its local food bank with a drive, and this year the need is even greater. Their annual food drive runs from Dec.1 - Dec.16The school is focusing on providing donations of high-need items and the Food Bank is always thankful for the donations from TIES.
The food/toiletry items donated by students go into quarantine before they get collected by the local food bank.
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Rockland DHS Caring Staff Give to Annual Gift Campaign
Rockland District High School staff got into the giving spirit and purchased many toys for boys and girls in need through the Valoris Christmas Angels campaign. Valoris is a multi-service agency for children, teenagers, adults and their families living throughout the United Counties of Prescott-Russell. For 29 years, Valoris has been celebrating the magic of Christmas by offering gifts to children in the Prescott-Russell region who are in need. The objective of the Christmas Elves Campaign is to put a gift under the Christmas tree for all these children and teenagers.
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Nationview Public School Inspires with 12 Days of Holiday Spirit
Nationview Public School’s student council encouraged good vibes by organizing its 12 Days of Holiday Spirit initiative. The South Mountain school posted a calendar and started its 12 Days of Holiday Spirit campaign on Dec. 3 with a food drive launch. The daily series includes theme days as well as action items that give back or promote kindness to others. For instance, on Day 4, students created holiday cards for armed forces members, frontline workers and retirement centre residents. Now that’s inspiring holiday spirit!
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Williamstown Public School Contributes to CAS Campaign
This year is no exception to Williamstown Public School’s commitment to giving back to its community. This year, the school took part in the annual Children’s Aid Society’s Holiday Star Campaign. Every December, families are invited to pick up a star and purchase a gift to make a child’s Christmas extra special. Instead of the usual gift campaign, the school collected gift cards and the CAS elves will then used the donated gift cards as gifts for teens as well as purchase toys for children.