SMALL GIFTS OF TIME
Six years ago, Candice Fruin, a student support advisor at Louise Dean School in Calgary, began managing her 14-year-old daughter’s soccer club, the Calgary Foothills GU15 04 Prospects. Last fall, when some of the girls began looking for more things to do outside of sport, Candice, a long-time volunteer through WE programming, jumped at the chance to introduce them to the WE Volunteer Now campaign.
A partnership with Cineplex, WE Volunteer Now helps young people identify an issue they’re passionate about and give their time to create real social change. It gave the group, made up of 13- to 14-year-olds from schools all over the city, focus and structure, says Candice.
“One of the mottos of the soccer club is ‘Developing excellent players and outstanding people,’ so it was super important for the girls to live that value,” she says. “Volunteering was one of the big things they wanted to do, and they really, really love doing it.”
The group called itself Greens Give Back, and over the next year they volunteered at local food banks and visited with residents at the Willow Park on the Bow retirement community in Calgary. They served cookies, cake and coffee during the home’s two big social dinners and at their monthly birthday celebrations.
But by far the girls’ favourite activity was helping to organize the crafts, face painting, games and treats for the Halloween Family Fun Night at the school where Candice works. Louise Dean is a high school for pregnant and parenting teens, and the girls were thrilled to help young people and get to play with cute babies and toddlers.
“It was such an easy thing to volunteer at, and such a helpful thing for the community and the school,” says Candice’s daughter Olivia.