Students at the Ponoka Composite High School have been innovative in collecting money to better children who struggle with blood cancers.
From about mid January to mid March students from Mr. Brady Teeling’s Social Advanced Class did a Pennies for Patients fundraiser which raised $652.32.
“We were really pleased with what was raised,” said Teeling. “Our goal was $500 and we exceeded that goal.”
The curriculum allows time for doing extra work and Teeling says that the 22 students came up with the idea to fundraise. The Pennies for Patients fundraiser is the first of three that the class will be doing throughout the year.
Pennies for Patients helped gain funds through selling orange carnations and having change collection boxes.
The school was involved and a competition was held to see which class could collect the most pennies over the weeks. The Grade 9 class took the winning title.
“The point of this is to teach kids about citizenship that’s not textbook, but is important,” said Teeling. “They did all the work, selling flowers and counting cash boxes each week.”
The students have recently been involved in the World Vision’s 30 Hour Famine and will be doing a third fundraiser for the Stollery Children’s Hospital in May/June.