Students at Red Deer's Barrie Wilson Elementary School are selling Candy Grams this week in support of six-year-old Lewis Cano, a Grade 1 student at the school currently battling leukemia. (rdnewsNOW / Sheldon Spackman)

By Sheldon Spackman

Learning To Give Back

Barrie Wilson students helping one of their own battling leukemia

Dec 10, 2019 | 12:42 PM

Students at École Barrie Wilson Elementary School in Red Deer are embracing the holiday spirit to help a fellow student battling leukemia.

This week, students are selling Candy Grams for 25 cents in support of Grade 1 student Lewis Cano and his family.

Kindergarten teacher Kim Baile says the students felt it would be nice to do something special for Lewis during the Christmas season.

(rdnewsNOW / Sheldon Spackman)

“The Kindergarten kids for their project-based learning assignment have made all of these Candy Grams,” explains Baile. “We asked the student population if they would purchase them. We thought it would be a nice thing for them to do to give their friends and family members a little note that said, ‘To You, From Me’, and ‘Have A Merry Christmas.’”

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Lewis, who is 6-years-old, was diagnosed with leukemia in August and has spent much of his time since then at the Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary.

“He’s not able to stay in Ronald McDonald House, so they stay at his grandmother’s house which is an hour from Calgary. So we’re hoping that maybe the money could go towards gas between there and Calgary and between here and Calgary. It’s a lot for a single mom,” says Baile.

If all the Candy Grams are sold, Baile says they will raise about $800.

Lewis Cano, 6, is a Grade 1 student at Barrie Wilson Elementary School in Red Deer and currently battling leukemia. (Supplied)

She hopes the experience of selling them helps her students better understand what a volunteer is and why it’s important to be a volunteer in your community.

“Our school has done a lot of service projects,” explains Baile. “The Kindergarten kids were also responsible for the food drive this past October through Farm Credit Canada (FCC), and so they saw what it was like to help others. They’re learning about the value of money, they’re sorting all the money, they’re learning that there’s someone in our school that needs a little bit of extra help at Christmas time and I just want them to be kind and caring.”

Baile describes Lewis himself as an extremely kind and caring student, in addition to being very quiet.

“He’s not sure about all of this attention, but he’s handling it in stride,” says Baile. “It was a pleasure to have him in my class the whole year. He had two little friends that followed him around all the time and he was always kind and caring. It just goes to show what kind of heart he has and he wants everyone to feel welcome and included, so any little thing that we can do for him would be nice.”

Baile says she’s very proud of her students and the support they’ve received from their peers.

“As soon as I asked them if they wanted to do it, they did and they’ve never complained.”

Candy Grams can be purchased at École Barrie Wilson Elementary School between 9:00 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. daily through Dec. 13.

To make an online donation, a GoFundMe campaign has been launched to assist the Cano family. Roughly $3,600 of the campaign’s $10,000 goal has already been raised.