Students learn joy of helping the needy

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/12/2010 (5584 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The turkey dinner is a memory and the presents are all unwrapped.

But to get an idea of the true spirit of Christmas, check out what the students and staff at Beautiful Savior Lutheran School were able to do for our local hungry.

In the run-up to Christmas, the students sacrificed the use of their gymnasium to convert it into what Winnipeg Harvest has told them is the province’s third-largest food bank.

And not one student is unhappy about it.

Recently, the school’s Leslie Kolmel invited me to watch the 129 preschool to Grade 8 students in action.

Filling the gym were pallets of coffee, rice, large bags of real potatoes, sugar and other foodstuffs. Parked outside, a large trailer was filled with frozen turkeys.

At the side of the gym were numerous large yellow shopping bags filled with wrapped presents.

The children were pushing carts in the ‘aisles’ between the food, a younger student paired with a senior student filled a hamper while looking at the list of an individual or family they were given.

Gerry Thiessen, the school’s principal, summed it up by calling what the students do “amazing.”

“We’re trying to teach empathy and concern for the community. Children live in a vacuum thinking everybody lives like they do. But people don’t and they learn that here.”

Rob Katyrynuik, chairman of the school’s board, said about 230 hampers will be filled, benefiting about 1,000 lives.

“This is a very eye-opening and healthy experience for these students,” he said.

The lesson seems to have hit home.

Carter Butterfield, 11, in Grade 6, said the yearly event “makes me feel really good.

“There are a lot of people out there who don’t have this type of stuff.”

Shortly after, Carter was telling his hamper partner, five-year-old Annabella Windsor, what the hamper would mean to the recipient: “This stuff would be like you got five (Nintendo) DS — maybe more.

“They appreciate this.”

Nine-year-old Maryn Woo, in Grade 4, said “this helps a lot of people who don’t have much.”

It just shows what one school can do to help our local hungry and it’s much like how our Pennies from Heaven campaign works to help the Christmas Cheer Board and Winnipeg Harvest.

One penny might not seem like much, but put it together with thousands more and we can help the hungry during this holiday season and beyond.

It’s after Christmas, but we still need you to take some time to run your pennies to one of our drop-off bins or put a cheque in the mail.

The Beautiful Savior students know the need is out there — I hope you do too.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca