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HJ Cody students giving back to their community

Nov 16, 2018 | 7:21 AM

Students at HJ Cody High School in Sylvan Lake marked National Philanthropy Day on November 15 by giving back to their community through a special project geared towards youth.

Held in conjunction with the Red Deer and District Community Foundation, the Youth in Philanthropy project called ‘How Do You Give?’ challenges students, staff and Sylvan Lake residents to look at how they fit philanthropy into their personal lives.

Erin Peden, Grants and Administration Coordinator with the Red Deer and District Community Foundation says the project has the students asking their peers to think about how they give of themselves.

“Whether it’s through their time, their money or their stuff,” explains Peden. “It’s part of a program that actually has them research charities within the community and they determine how they can make the most impact with the money that they are given. We are teaching the youth of today to be fantastic citizens tomorrow, the more they know about social issues and what’s going on within their communities now, the more they’re going to be effective as adults in how to give.”

Peden says the program was implemented last year in Red Deer at St. Francis of Assisi Middle School and since then has branched into three other Red Deer schools in addition to HJ Cody in Sylvan Lake.

“Our ultimate objective is to have philanthropy as an everyday word, so that people understand how to implement it in their family, in their lives and into the future,” she explains. “They’re a fantastic group of kids. These kids here have decided that they want to keep the money locally, so they chose to donate to Victim Services Unit (VSU), because they felt they had either been impacted personally or know someone who has been impacted by VSU and I’m proud of them for making that choice.”

Jacqui Renwick, Leadership Teacher at HJ Cody High School says the project is a chance to bring awareness to both their school and community about how youth can give back.

“It’s mostly about awareness and then building into a program where they can choose a grant amount of money,” she explains. “The philanthropy program gives us $500 to grant to a community charity and they have chosen Victim Services Unit of Sylvan Lake as a team. I just want them to understand that what they do as youth is really important and they can make a difference at a young age.”

Tatyanna Stoesz, a 15-year-old Grade 11 student at HJ Cody High School says she loves the opportunity the program gives her and her peers to help make the community a better place.

“A lot of us were personally connected to Victim Services,” explains Stoesz. “Whether our families volunteered with them or a trauma has happened and we needed Victim Services with us at that time. I definitely hope that we can teach people how to help people in a different way that they don’t know already.”