Four Students Rally their School and Raise $1081.57 for Syrian Refugees
Posted on 04/12/2016

Four girls from St. Mary’s Catholic School, in Collingwood, took on a social justice challenge and raised $1081.57 for Syrian refugee families. They presented a cheque to Mr. Tom Vincent, a representative of Collingwood Syrian Sponsorship.

Lydia Mirrlees, Abigail Denomme, Leah Ray, and Adriana Baric, are Grade 6 students at St. Mary’s. They decided that they “wanted to stop talking about Syria and start doing something about it”.

“I did this because I really was passionate about helping refugees. It made me realize how I have so much and they have so little,” said Adriana.

“No one deserves to live in the conditions that they had to live in,” Abigail added.

With support from their teacher, Mrs. Tina Moneypenny, the young women inspired students from all grades at their school to bring in small amounts of money. They ran an assembly, created thermometers for each classroom door to track money raised, they collected and counted all the money, and asked teachers to model wild hairstyles created by their students once their targets were met.

When asked to give advice to others who may wish to help by fundraising, Leah said, “the most important thing throughout the fundraiser is to stay organized. We kept extra copies and had lists for just about everything.”

Was it worth it? Would they do it again?

Adriana: “Once the fundraiser finished, I felt so proud. I can sleep much better knowing that I made a difference.”

Lydia: “I gained confidence because we stood up in front of all these people and told them our feelings and thoughts and ideas. So many people can talk about what’s happening, which we should do, but we really should be trying to do something about it. Everyone should get involved because every donation counts, and they need our help.”  

Abigail: “Yes, I would do this again because I enjoyed helping the Syrian refugees and taking leadership in a big thing like this.”

Leah: “This experience made me realize that, with hard work, you can do anything – literally! I gained more self-confidence, and in the end, we did something great and helped a family start a new chapter of their life.”

The students of St. Mary’s challenge YOU to make a difference. Can you meet or surpass their fundraising goal of $1000 in order to support a Syrian refugee family?