Churchill students inspired to collect food
Students at Winston Churchill High School were fighting hunger pangs with vampire fangs during their We Scare Hunger event on Friday.
Brayden Klippenstein, a Grade 12 student who was involved in organizing the event, said the more than 700 food items collected for charity were a combination of general student donations and a grade-level challenge that encouraged students to give even more.
“Food is expensive,” he said. “A lot of people can’t afford food. And the food bank needs all the help it can get. We have a little extra cash, and we have food just lying around, so it’s nice to be able to give that food to help people help themselves.”
We Day is a youth empowerment event designed to motivate students to get involved in local and global issues. We Day events happen in cities across Canada, the U.S. and U.K., and feature thousands of students coming together to celebrate and be inspired by positive action.
Klippenstein said it was his first time attending We Day on Wednesday and he said he was impressed with the message and the speakers.
“I thought it was absolutely fantastic,” he said. “The energy was crazy, and all of it was directed toward leadership, toward helping others.”
Kevin McBeath, a social studies teacher at WCHS, said the students take inspiration from the message that no goal should be considered unattainable.
“If you truly believe in something, you should try and exhaust all measures in order to achieve it,” he said.
“The biggest thing is that it empowers them to understand they don’t have to wait to do something. They don’t have to wait to graduate from school, to have a career, or have one. They can do something right now and make an impact on the local community.”
In 2015, McBeath travelled to Ecuador to work on a water project. At We Day, he had an opportunity to share his experiences of going somewhere and doing something to change people’s lives.
“One of the best parts was that we were a smaller part of a big project,” he said. “We dug a kilometre worth of trenches. At times, you can’t see the end, but then, nine months later, we have these pictures of the community having clean water. And you know from being there of the importance that having that water is to the community.”
He said these events help people understand that humanity is a single race.
“Chris Hadfield said you don’t see borders or nations from space. You see Earth. That’s who we all are. We all bleed the same blood, and our hearts beat all the same way.”