Girls’ cookie sale raises $1,200 for fire victims
Three friends were aiming to raise at least $25 in a cookie sale they organized to benefit a family coping with a tragic loss following a house fire in Varsity.
With a handful of posters leading the way to their booth at the Varsity Community Centre, where they attend afterschool care, nine-year-olds Hannat Adediran, Ella Mill and Claire Yiptong expected a few parents to support their modest fundraiser.
But as news caught on, $25 became $50, and $50 became $100. Long after all 120 cookies had sold out, people kept dropping by with donations, bringing the total funds raised to more than $1,200.
“I’m shocked,” said Claire. “I thought it was great that people wanted to help.”
“It feels pretty good,” added Ella. The girls, Grade 4 students at Varsity Acres School, remembered seeing smoke in the air and fire trucks lining the streets on Feb. 6 as they arrived for class.
A blaze had broken out at a bungalow near the school in the 4300 block of Vauxhall Crescent N.W. that morning. Crews later found Sherri Nicholls, a mother of two, dead inside the home.
The girls said they couldn’t imagine being in the family’s position, and decided they had to do something to help. Last Monday afternoon, they were in the kitchen for nearly three hours whipping up 120 cookies. Tuesday was spent putting final touches on the posters.
Over the next two days, with news quickly spreading about the fundraiser, the girls were surprised to see so many people coming to buy cookies. Even after the bake sale ended early and the cookies were sold out Thursday, people kept arriving to make donations.
Joanne Nickerson, the Varsity Community Association’s director of child care, said she’s very proud of the girls and overjoyed by the community support. “Everyone is so thrilled. It’s pretty amazing and beyond anything we could have expected,” she said.
Kevin Handcock, spokesman for the Nicholls family, echoed Nickerson’s sentiments.
“Wow, thank you so much. These girls are really fantastic,” he said. “It’s so kind and generous of them. They actually set out and put all this work into doing all of that.”