Spreading the word
Somerset class wins contest to raise awareness about hemophilia
Cries of joy could be heard from throughout the school when it was announced to Sharon Anderson’s Grade 3 /4 Somerset Elementary class that they were selected winners of the first ever Garry MacLean Award.
The award was created earlier this year in memory of Garry MacLean, a president of the P.E.I. chapter of the Hemophilia Society of Canada in the 1980s and ‘90s.
Cathy Wright, Garry’s sister, presented the award.
“It’s something we came up with to honour Garry and spread awareness as well,” said Wright.
The students were challenged to come up with ways to spread awareness about hemophilia and Anderson says the kids were all in from the start.
“Only one kid in the class heard about the disorder but none of them knew what it was. So, I showed them some videos that explained what hemophilia was and they were all on board with the contest.”
The grade 3 and 4 Kinkora area students only had two days to work on the project due to a couple of snow days before the March break.
The students used those two days by creating posters to put up around the school with information about the disorder, and creating Power Point presentations for the other classes at the school.
They also held a pyjama day, which raised $208 for the Hemophilia Society, and created a video to explain the disorder.
“We posted the video on YouTube and our school’s Facebook page so parents could see it as well.”
Some students noted that the video taught their parents a thing or two about the disorder.
The contest was open to all kindergarten to Grade 9 classes on the Island and the Somerset students were selected from four submissions.
As for the prize money, the class has decided to donate the $1,000 towards the school’s outdoor class room.