To help teach and engage Grade 2 students the importance of service in their community, Cochrane Christian Academy (CCA) is bringing back their annual service project to help provide goods for those in need.
Grade 2 teacher, Brenda Hiebert, said this will be the third year CCA has done this particular service project. She said the idea behind the initiative came out of the COVID-19 pandemic, after one of her friends who works at Cochrane Home Treasures mentioned an increase of customers who frequent thrift store.
“My partner teacher, Sherry [Walz] and I, started thinking maybe this is a way the kids can give back,” Hiebert said. “And then we heard back about how much they give back to the community at Home Treasures, and we thought, ‘what an all-around great opportunity that can get our kids involved with something meaningful for them.’”
Hiebert said one lesson from this project helps teach her students about being able to identify something they find important or valuable, and giving It back to someone else.
“We have a little booklet that we fill in with them where we talk about what kinds of things you want to give,” Hiebert said.
The criteria for the service project require students to bring in something in mint condition, cleaned as best as they can, not broken, and they must make sure it is something they would want to receive as a gift.
“And then we just wait and see what they bring in, and we provide the trucks based on what comes in,” Hiebert said.
Although Hiebert said she may be tripping over things like a wagon in her classroom, she said the project is worth it, as it serves an important message for her students.
“It’s a visual for the kids to say, I used to use a wagon and I don’t need a wagon anymore so I can give that, toys, books, and all kinds of things like that,” she said.
From a faith-based perspective, Hiebert added the idea behind the project also stems from the biblical principle of serving others, and it also ties into the core values of the Christian academy in a way that makes it meaningful and impactful for her students.
In the past, the service project has been successful in giving back to the Cochrane community. She noted that in the last two years, they have successfully filled a truck bed and backseats with various goods.
“This year, the kids seem to be quite excited about it, so we have two trucks on backup for that that day,” Hiebert said.
With her classroom alongside Miss Walz’s piling up with items gathered by students already, she said when they are finished collecting items on May 5, it will be a group effort by both classrooms to fill the trucks.
In closing, Hiebert said she values the way Cochrane Home Treasures runs their organization and their many contributions to the community.
“I think it’s really cool for our kids to see your contribution, even though it may be small, when we all do it together, it has a really big impact,” she said.
