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Young students hold a Christmas Candy Cane Drive to support the Dreams for Kids campaign.
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December 22, 2024
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OSV Newsillustration/Dado Ruvic, Reuters
A spirit of altruism is shining brightly in Catholic schools on the Prairies this Christmas.
Charitable drives and community outreach dinners represents just a couple examples of Christmastime generosity emanating out of learning institutes in Alberta and Manitoba.
In the case of the Edmonton Catholic School Division (ECSD), this 94-school community is hosting its fourth annual Dream Builders Challenge. Though this fundraiser for the Edmonton Catholic Schools Foundation, particularly its Dream for Kids campaign, runs all academic year, it reaches a peak during Advent.
“We understand that Advent is a time of preparation and extending ourselves to help others in the community who are less able or do not have the financial resources,” said Sandra Talarico, the ECSD’s manager of religious education services. “One way we do this is by doing something unique. Each school leads their own (charitable) campaign.”
ECSD schools have hosted winter carnivals, movie days, bike-a-thons, pizza lunches and more in the leadup to Christmas. The $171,200 raised in 2023-24 funded food programs, provided mental health assistance, delivered living support for disadvantaged families and subsidized impoverished students so field trips, extracurricular sports and camp activities would be accessible experiences. Over 19,000 students benefitted from Dream Builders Challenge proceeds.
Though the Dream Builders branding emerged within the last four years, this fundraising endeavour actually dates back to the 1990s. Talarico teamed up with Theresa Volk, now the principal of Bishop David Motiuk Catholic Elementary/Junior High School, to introduce the Kids Care Challenge at Sir John Thompson Catholic Junior High School. Originally to the direct charitable benefit of Catholic Social Services, the student body actually accrued a substantial donation haul via penny collecting.
Volk said it is great “to see grateful students get that feeling that they really should be giving back” and they exhibit enthusiasm with their actions.
To the east, an impressive act carried out by Grade 7 and 8 students at St. Alphonsus School in Winnipeg is the cooking club preparing and delivering a meal to the Holy Names House of Peace intercultural refuge for newcomer women on Dec. 16. Students cooked turkey, stuffing, vegetables and other staples of a traditional Christmas dinner.
Christine McInnes, the principal of St. Alphonsus, praised this initiative, in its sophomore year, as “a beautiful idea.”
“It's very good for our kids (who), generally speaking, have lots of home support and lots of good things in life to think outside of their own experience and have an opportunity to reach out to others,” said McInnes.
McInnes appreciates the privilege to work in an educational system where the true essence of Christmas takes centrestage.
“I think we're lucky because we are a Catholic school that we have the opportunity to actually talk about the real reason for the season,” said McInnes. “That's a real blessing that we have here. Families come here because they know it's a school where faith is important. They are very supportive of any endeavours that bring that truth to the forefront.”
The spirit of the season also thrived at St. Paul’s High School, an all-boys' academy in the Jesuit tradition, also in Winnipeg. Propelling the Christmas appeal were Kevin Booth, the president of the school, and Grade 12 students Mark Nashed, the student council president, and Eric Wardrop, the president of the school’s Maroon and White Society.
St. Paul’s students were invited to dress casually on Dec. 6 and 12 for a $2 charge. Students and their parents were also welcomed to make direct donations to the Christmas hamper program, which would support the less fortunate members of the school community. The baskets were distributed on Dec. 19.
Wardrop told The Catholic Register that the hamper drive “allows everybody to step up, take action and give to the community so that everybody may really enjoy this season.”
Nashed added that “it is an absolute blessing to be in a position where not only I can give, but I can facilitate giving from others.”
(Amundson is an associate editor and writer for The Catholic Register.)
A version of this story appeared in the December 22, 2024, issue of The Catholic Registerwith the headline "Students embrace generosity of the season".
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