In support of the Frank House Thanksgiving Food Drive, Hawthorn’s Grade 11-12 R.E.A.L. class organized an inter-school event with Crescent School in our school neighbourhood on the afternoon of Tuesday, October 14th. We met our Crescent peers on our school porch and broke the ice with them a bit through a few ‘fun facts’ questions. Having a common activity was a great, fun way to work together for a cause, and we quickly ventured out. Splitting into teams, we began going door-to-door with flyers and taking turns inviting people to donate non-perishable food items to the St Basil’s Out of the Cold programme.
In less than an hour, we collected over forty items to add to our school’s already impressive contributions. While we could have used more time, carrying the donations was kind of heavy work, and we’ll make sure next time to remind the boys to have lunch first (!), we were heartened to be met with many friendly, generous neighbours. ‘My grandson goes to Crescent!’ ‘God bless!’ ‘This is great work you’re doing!’ These were just some of the positive comments from the people we met.
Our new Crescent School friends followed up on our event by telling us that they liked the experience, they were happy that we invited them, and they loved the cookies and cupcakes that we baked to share with them! In turn, they would like to invite us to work with them to prepare sandwiches at their school for Sandwich Sisters, a charitable organization that they support who delivers food to local shelters for people in need.
A huge thank you goes out to the Crescent School boys who took up our invitation to join us in this great cause, and to Miss Yu, Mr. Chau and Mr. Sanz who organized the activity. We’re happy to have made a first step in getting to know them, and we’re looking forward to continuing our partnership for good!