Students make a difference
Glace Bay High’s Me to We members helping at home and around the world
There’s always a bit of a fight when Brittany MacLean brings a community project to the members of the Glace Bay High School Me To We club for discussion.
The fight is not over who will do the work and if it will get done, but instead it’s about how much more work can each of the club’s active membership take on.
“If we have a bake sale I don’t have to say ‘please guys let’s do this,’ it’s trying to fight to organize time so that everybody can take part,” said MacLean, the program’s youth co-ordinator.
“You can definitely tell they are inspired to go out and make a difference. I think that’s the reason it is so easy to do everything.”
Take their recent efforts to assist a community in India, for example.
That aid project came up when members of the group saw the movie “Lion” which details issues with missing children in India, among other things.
As soon as they saw that movie, MacLean said the club’s 24 members in Grades 9-12 immediately wanted to help.
“I have never brought up a campaign and they said ‘no.’ They are always saying ‘let’s do this.’”
The result was an Easter grams initiative that raised money for the Magic Bus Foundation that helps to keep children off the streets in that country.
“You see things going on in the
world and you want to help,” said Laurelle Caume, a Grade 10 student, when asked why she is in the group.
“It’s fun and makes you feel good about yourself because you are helping people,” added Kelsea McLean, a Grade 10 student.
Over the course of any given year, club members can be found taking an active role in local and international issues ranging from walking dogs for the SPCA to learning more about social justice issues.
You may have seen them strolling through their community with water buckets on their heads to raise money and awareness for clean water projects overseas or collecting food items instead of treats at Halloween.
“Helping a person is helping a person, no matter what you do,” said Madison Capstick, a Grade 10 student.
“Once you are involved for so long it just becomes a daily part of your routine. You just push yourself as best you can.”
On May 13, they’ll partner with Ford Canada on the local Ford Drive For Change at the Harbourside Industrial Park, next to Open Hearth Park in Sydney.
From 10 a.m. until 2 p.m., Ford will donate $20 to the group for every person 18 and older who takes a test drive in a vehicle.
The Glace Bay Me to We club could make as much as $6,000 from the test rides to help four food banks in Cape Breton as well as a community in Africa.
“We are trying to reach out locally and globally with our main aspect of having children involved,” said MacLean.
“We know that one in every three kids in Cape Breton is struggling to find food, so we want to help there. As well, I worked in the community in Tanzania building a school. I saw first-hand the poverty there and the children living on less than $1 per day.”
Email britt_mac7@hotmail.com for details on the Ford Drive For Change or any of the club’s ongoing events.