The We Day Club at Spruce Ridge School gave their peers a taste of what happens during a We Day, thanks to an event on June 20 at the school.
The Spruce Ridge We Day featured motivational speakers, music, videos and more. A morning session was offered for students from Westview, Pleasantdale, Hillcrest and Manor schools. The afternoon was for Spruce Ridge students and people from the community.
Jody Copeland, who is the learning support teacher at the school, estimated there were about 600 people who attended the two sessions.
The event at Spruce Ridge was spurred from students attending a We Day in Manitoba last October.
“They decided they wanted to try to do something for Estevan,” said Copeland.
The first speaker was Brady Johnson from Encompass Fitness. She talked about the importance of not being concerned about people’s opinions.
Then local Habitat for Humanity committee chair Doug Barnstable discussed how the We Day Club raised $2,500 for a Habitat house in Nicaragua.
Estevan’s Payton Sernick, who is this province’s ambassador for the Champions Program for the Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital Foundation of Saskatchewan, sent in a video message about the power hopes and dreams.
Spruce Ridge student Kaitlyn Desrosiers, who is part of the We Day Club, spoke about her experiences from moving a lot.
“She told us about one of her experiences at one of the schools she attended,” said Copeland.
The kids also organized prize giveaways, dance contests and noise contests.
Copeland said the kids were very impressed with the event they organized, and she was proud of them.
“There are 36 kids right now in the club, and they did such a great job,” said Copeland. “They were pretty excited. The energy was amazing in there. We had three hosts who took on the major speaking parts of holding the whole show together.”
But everyone had a role to play to make We Day a success.
Copeland also paid tribute to Spruce Ridge response to intervention teacher Robyn Ruzicka for her efforts to make the event happen.
It’s been a good year for the club, Copeland said. Each year they have to pick a new pillar to focus on, and this year it was education. As part of that pillar, the club set aside $1,000 to furnish a school room in Haiti. Johnson matched the amount to furnish another school room.
The other pillars are food, water, health and opportunity.
“We’ll choose something that we can focus a little bit more on locally next year, and try to keep our fundraising money right in Estevan,” said Copeland.
