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Hugh John Macdonald's |
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Hugh John Macdonald's |
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This year the student council of Hugh John Macdonald decided to actively support the Christmas Cheer Board and the Pennies from Heaven campaign sponsored by the Winnipeg Free Press.
During the first week in December a box was placed in each classroom. The student reps from the classroom were in charge of these boxes. Some were decorated. Some classes had a list of what was put in. Other rooms kept a list of who brought what. Some classes even had a draw from the students who donated. On December 14 the student executive and teacher advisor loaded 12 boxes loaded with dry and canned goods and plush toys. An afternoon was spent filling hampers at the Christmas Cheer board on Leila street. The students noted the benefits of a good education. They commented that they would not like to spend their working days on an assembly line!
Each day in December three Grade 7 Christmas elves took a decorated coffee can to each class to fill with pennies. This quickly caught on and soon students were bringing pockets of change to fill the can to help the needy children. The Grade 7 social studies class was doing a unit on culture and sold their multicultural bookmarks they had made to support Pennies from Heaven. They raised $11. 17. Some staff members brought in their own jars of coins. One staff member passed around a silver collection at her Christmas party. Two teachers had a craft club over lunch hour during the second last week of school. Wooden ornaments were painted and Rudolph candy canes were created. The items were put on sale before classes in the morning and at lunch hour. This made $48.50 for the Pennies campaign.
The ESL class spent one class rolling the coin and several students came to be volunteer rollers at noon hour.
The Grade 7 Christmas elves were very proud to visit Lindor Reynolds., Pennies from Heaven coordinator, at the Winnipeg Free Press building and present her with four coffee cans filled with $409.39!!!
D. Thordarson