The Outdoor Adventure class at kcs recently donated nearly $800 worth of toys to the Sylvan Lake Christmas Bureau.
The students in the class held a bottle drive fundraiser in the month of October, with the plan to use the money to purchase gifts for the Christmas Bureau.
At the end of October, the final total came in, and the two outdoor adventure classes raised a little more than $800.
Kasha Levie, the Outdoor Adventure teacher at kcs, said the fundraiser was a success thanks to the “amazing families” at the school.
“Our parents were just so helpful and excited about the whole idea,” said Levie. “We had parents who were getting their businesses to donate as well.”
The fundraiser had many parts, each which taught the students about new ideas in different ways.
The bottle drive itself involved the students going on a field trip to learn about the bottle depot and recycling.
Levie said everyone was really interested about the process.
“They were all really excited about the bottle depot field trip. They got to help sort the bottle,” she said.
Following the field trips to the bottle depot, and learning the total raised was a little more than $800, the classes took a trip to Walmart where each child picked out toys they thought other kids would enjoy.
Wendy Sypkes, one of the teacher’s aides in the class, said taking the kids to Walmart to shop for themselves was really exciting.
“The kids were all really excited to shop and they all knew these were gifts for other kids,” Sypkes said.
“There were times when some would pick out something and say they wanted it we would just redirect them, asking if they thought another little boy or girl would like that as a gift.”
The original plan had been to give each child about $30 to shop with, however the teachers soon learned that could make shopping difficult.
The students ended up picking out between 50 and 60 toys to donate to the Sylvan Lake Christmas Bureau.
“I didn’t realize how expensive toys are!” Levie said. “With $30 you can get one maybe two toys, and those aren’t even the big, fun ones.”
Following the trip to the store, the two classes also went the Christmas Bureau to donate the toys themselves.
There they were put to work, helping to put the toys on the tables and sorting them.
“I think this helped to show the kids they were helping as part of a community, and it wasn’t just something they were doing,” said Sypkes.
The bit of money left over from the shopping trip was also donated to the Christmas Bureau, to help purchase other items that may be needed.
The success of the fundraiser this year surprised the teachers, and they say they are so grateful to the students and their families for helping.
Levie says she is already planning to do the fundraiser again next year with the class.
“It was so much fun, I think we all had a great time and learned something,” Levie said.
