Mariposa Elementary School’s Student Organized Awareness and Response Group, otherwise known as SOAR, recently held a “Trick Hunger and Treat the Food Bank” drive to give back to the local community.
From October 11 to November 1, the group collected non-perishable food items from all grades across the school. The students organized all of the logistics with the food bank from start to finish, and promoted the initiative to all grades.
In total, SOAR collected 831 food items, which were donated to the Little Britain Food Bank.
The SOAR Group is made up of Grade 7 and 8 students who want to help their community and raise awareness about issues that are important to them. The students select ideas for campaigns and then student captains volunteer to take responsibility. All students participate in leadership activities while the captains ensure that the work is completed. Captains coordinate school announcements, posters, team visits to classrooms, and they connect with outside approved agencies to be featured. The group does some fundraising, but the primary focus is sharing their learning of issues and information with the whole school and wider community. Some of the student-selected issues covered by the group over the year include the animal relocation group Kawartha Lakes Animal Wellness Society (KLAWS), the Mariposa Food Bank, the Shoebox Project, and Walk for Water.
