A year of hard work giving back to the community led to some unexpected recognition for four East Lake School Students.
Grade 8 students Cloey Butler, Ava Hayward, Ella Tait and Aiden Ramage were nominated by their teachers for the 2018 Bow River Volunteerism award for the way the group consistently goes above and beyond to help out both at the school and in the community.
“When we heard about the opportunity to nominate students for a volunteer award we thought that they would be excellent candidates for the number of hours they put into volunteering and helping out at the school,” said Assistant Principal Jason Billings.
While each student is an active volunteer, they were all recognized for their unique contributions.
“We’ve been helping some kids in our school, work at the kiosk and we’ve also been organizing school dances and student life conferences,” said Butler.
The kiosk is the snack counter run by students over the lunch hour.
All of the students said they were shocked when their awards arrived in the mail.
“Our teacher kept it a surprise so when we got it in the mail it was just another piece of mail and then when we opened it, it was a big surprise,” said Tait.
“I was really happy when I got it in the mail,” said Ramage.
Billings said that all of the staff have been impressed with the kid’s volunteerism since the beginning of the school year.
“The four of them have volunteered throughout the whole year helping run [the kiosk],” said Billings.
“Instead of hanging out with their friends at lunch time they’re volunteering their time to work with a number of students in the kiosk to provide a snack program for students,” he said.
They have also helped to organize, set up and tear down after school dances.
“Every couple months, we have a school dance here and I come and help set up the kiosk and decorations,” said Tait.
The also help to deliver hot lunch to the different classrooms when the school has the special lunches.
“We basically just help out…delivering the food to different classes,” said Hayward.
Working in the greater community, they have helped to collect donations for the food bank and Tait volunteers at another school to help with their school dances.
“I go to the Louise Dean school sometimes and help out with their school dances,” she said.
The student’s year of volunteerism started out last fall when they helped to collect the donations brought into the school by the various class rooms.
This work with the food bank led to a pair of them going and volunteering there along with one of their teachers.
“Me and Chloe we went to the food bank on a weekend and we helped out,” said Hayward.
While all of them planned to continue with their volunteerism next year as they enter Grade 9, Butler said that the award gives them motivation to run an even better kiosk and food drive next year.
With making these programs bigger and better in mind, Tait said she is working to get a year-long food bank drive started in the school.
Regardless of what the kids choose to do in the future, Billings said that the staff were happy to have the kids efforts recognized.
“It was nice to be able to recognize them before the end of the school year for all the hard work that they’ve done this year,” said Billings, “because it is something they should be very proud of.”
