There were 143 children in Wellington North whose Christmas was made a little brighter this year thanks to the hard work of a Grade 12 business leadership class at Wellington Heights Secondary School.
Through a variety of fundraising activities, including a silent auction, raffle, toy drive, winter barbecue and polar dip, the 26 students raised an astounding $37,000 for disadvantaged families in the community.
The program, aptly named Warm Winter Wishes and now in its 13th year, has raised over $200,000 since 2002. Each year a group of students takes on the project to gain leadership and managerial experience – but they end up taking away so much more.
Student Kaitlin Brown served as finance manager for the project in 2013 and decided to help out again in 2014 as part of her business co-op.
“I really enjoyed it [in 2013]. The fact that you’re providing children in the community with a Christmas they might not necessarily get is very rewarding,” she said.
“It’s a great charity so I thought I’d help out with it again.”
Brown says planning for the project starts in October, with students brainstorming a number of fundraising ideas to be initiated over a four-week period leading up to Christmas.
It also involves a lot of outreach, approaching businesses and generating interest from the public.
Brown said students are fortunate to have continued support from so many people in the community, which helps increase fundraising totals year after year.
“The community has been awesome … this year we had a silent auction and everybody wanted to get involved – they want to get involved in anyway they can, whether its local businesses giving silent auction donations or our parents helping out making food for taco day,” said Brown.
“More local businesses are also more aware of the organization [now] – they almost expect that we’ll be coming out and talking to them every year.”
Although it is a business course, Brown says the skills students acquire are far reaching and will be applicable in many different avenues throughout their lives.
“They gain quite a few things – communication skills for sure because as a manager you have to be able to communicate with other students. They learn how to plan and organize events and coordinate them – everything from start to finish,” she explained.
“Everything that a manager would do is basically what they learn – really big are leadership skills – being able to cooperate with other students in the same way you would run a business in the future.”
Because of the project’s size and limited time frame, students must also learn how to balance their priorities, she said, which can be challenging.
“Students have other classes as well, so [they] have to be able to manage their time wisely in order to put in the extra effort with Warm Winter Wishes, but also keep their grades up in other courses as well.”
While students learn how to set and achieve tangible goals and develop strong leadership skills, ultimately the most valuable thing they take away from is the feeling they can have a significant impact on children and families in the community, Brown said.
The most recent success of the project covered the purchase of $15,000 worth of clothing and gifts and $11,000 in grocery and drug store gift cards.
Any remaining money was given to area schools to assist with nutrition and breakfast programs.
“Throughout the course students are able to build on their leadership skills and learn how to cooperate with others and work as a team,” Brown said.
“That’s the most important part of being successful – being able to work with other people.”
