By Sheldon Spackman

Notre Dame grad service project raises nearly 40 grand for Aspire Special Needs

Mar 18, 2018 | 12:09 PM

Roughly 250 students from Ecole Secondaire Notre Dame High School and some grade nines from St. Francis of Assisi Middle School in Red Deer wrapped up this year’s grad service project with a 21-hour scavenger hunt on Saturday.

This year’s grad service project saw teams of six students from both schools work together to complete challenges during their lunch hours last week to earn points. The series of challenges then culminated with a scavenger hunt that began at 4:00 p.m. on Friday and wrapped up at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday.

School officials say teams who earned the most points and raised the most money for this year’s grad service project recipient were awarded prizes, with the proceeds raised this year going to Aspire Special Needs Resource Centre in Red Deer.

The initial total raised from these activities was announced as $39,870.15 on Saturday.

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Heather Reynolds, Board Chair for Aspire Special Needs Resource Centre, says it’s a mazing that a group of students can raise $40,000 for a charity in our community.

“The money is going to be used for specialized equipment to help our children be comfortable while they’re in the school,” explains Reynolds. “It’s going to be used for equipment such as ipads to help diagnose and educate our kids. It’s also going to be used for fee-assistance. We have about 50 families that can’t pay full or part of their fees towards the school and we think that it’s not fair for any child to go without, so we do fund those fees.”

Reynolds adds how proud she is of the students for taking the time to be so invested in an association that helps so many in our community.

“I think the energy and having kids involved and being able to spread the word of Aspire being out in our community is just wonderful,” says Reynolds. “I’m just super proud to be here and I think it’s amazing. We’re so happy that we were chosen to be the recipient of those funds for Aspire.”

Ethan West, 18, is a Grade 12 student at Notre Dame and says although a little sleep-deprived, the event has been exciting for him and his peers.

“I’ve explored lots of different parts of Red Deer I’ve never seen before,” admits West. “I think it’s a great way to get involved with the community and within our school and just have fun while raising money for a charity.”

Fellow grade 12 grad student Ciara Mooney agrees the experience has been a good time.

“I really enjoyed it,” she says. “We’ve been doing activities all week and then we went all night for this one. I think it’s really cool and the amount of work that everyone has put into it. We’ve raised so much money and awareness already. I think it’s really awesome.”

“It makes me realize that I need to put in more work for the community,” adds fellow grad-mate Daria Dan. “All the time, not just times like this. Then it can be a constant help.”

Event Coordinator Shannon Nivens says she gave the students a list of about 1,500 items that they had to collect during the scavenger hunt.

“They’ve also had challenges throughout Red Deer,” explains Nivens. “So they had to go to Home Depot and collect a bunch of weird named paint chip colours and they had to go to the Kerry Wood Nature Centre and play songs on the Harmony Garden Music Park. They had to go to Aspire and do challenges, they did an art challenge and then of course the collecting too, so it’s been pretty nutty.”

“I think the cool thing is that kids are realizing they can make a difference,” says Nivens. “They can get involved, they can be a voice and we’re giving a lot of exposure to Aspire Special Needs Resource Centre which is pretty cool.”