Ready... Set... GO!
Ready... Set... GO!
Ready... Set... GO!
Written by Laurie Koning, EduDeo's School Relationship Manager.
When you GO, you don’t sit still. You do something. You take action.
EduDeo GO: School Edition, a fundraiser that supports our annual school campaign, has been run by schools across Canada for the last three years. This event allows great flexibility with activity choice, event duration, and format. We even have resources to make facilitating the event easy, such as a How-To Guide, Fundraising Guide, and online donation platform.
Five schools have hosted (or will be hosting) their own EduDeo GO: School Edition event this school year. I love hearing stories of their creativity in how they incentivize students, how they adjust to unforeseen circumstances, and the activities they choose.
One school provided incentive by telling students they could run laps around the school yard with a goat if they met their fundraising goal (a very effect strategy, it turns out). Another school held an indoor event as a last-minute pivot due to weather. Another school skipped afternoon classes to do a skip-a-thon.
This year we decided to kick it up a notch.
We envisioned an EduDeo GO event in which EduDeo would do most of the work of booking a venue, planning and running the activities, and arranging the food. (Think field day meets summer camp.) All the schools needed to do was fundraise and show up on the event day. We called this event EduDeo GO: Ultimate Edition.
Participating schools (Timothy Christian School from Hamilton, Ontario and Dunnville Christian School from Dunnville, Ontario) fundraised in their own unique ways.
Together, they raised $7,250 for new classrooms, a dining hall, and tuition bursaries in Ethiopia! What a great achievement to celebrate!
So how did it work? A team of 35 students in Grade 6-8 from each school joined the EduDeo staff at Hamilton District Christian High School (HDCH) on May 5. Each school team was divided into smaller groups and assigned a high school student as their team leader. Students were challenged to use skills in problem solving, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration in a series of six competitive activities led by EduDeo staff and high school students. Their cheering could be heard kilometres away! I was glad to hear that pizza for lunch is still a crowd-pleaser, and even the best part of the day for some students.
Events like this help students to see that they can make a difference. There are so many ways they can impact their local and global community - and can have fun while doing it.
We want to thank Timothy Christian School and Dunnville Christian School for participating and Hamilton District Christian High School (especially Pauline Vandervelde and her amazing students) for hosting and partnering with us to facilitate a memorable and high-energy day of fun.
We hope to host more events like this in the coming year in other geographic regions and for different age groups. If you’re interested, we’d love to hear from you! Email Laurie at [email protected].
Photo and video credit: Sam Lingley