Students show character in tsunami relief campaign
Wednesday, February 16, 2005 - John Driscoll
Students in schools across the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board showed their character education attributes in raising more than $100,00 towards tsunami relief efforts.
The board has adopted character education as an initiative with 10 character education attributes infused throughout the curriculum.

The fundraising campaign was not tied directly to character education at Crestwood Secondary School but the efforts certainly fall into such character education attributes as empathy, initiative and responsibility, says principal Jane Ashley.

The tsunami relief initiative was student-driven, Ashley says.

“We had students come to us and say they’d like to do something.”

Teacher Kim Kasperski worked with student council president Gillian Lester and others to organize events, she said.

There was a homeroom challenge with a prize to the class that raised the most money. Grade 12 student Kevin R. Jacobs put together a concert featuring four local bands and that was a big hit among parents and students at $5 a ticket for flood relief, Ashley says. “That was a really neat event and Kevin organized the whole thing.”

There was a sale during lunch hour and after school of used books at $2 each and used CDs for $5 each that raised funds. Former Crestwood student and Team Canada junior hockey star Corey Perry donated a sweater, T-shirt, hat and autographed stick that were raffled off at a school-community event.

“The whole school really got behind this,” Ashley says. The campaign raised more than $8,000 matched by Clarica Financial Services.

Some schools tied their fundraising campaigns into the character education attribute of empathy, says Judy Malfara, the board’s communications officer. “Every school did something.” The fundraising continues, she says.