A group of civic-minded students at St. Joseph School banded together this week to give back to families in their school community.
The youngsters were in a frenzy folding donated shirts, pants, scarves and other clothing Wednesday afternoon in preparation for a 鈥渃lothing pop-up event鈥� they鈥檙e hosting at the school.
It kicked off Thursday evening and continues during parent-teacher conference today.
鈥淭he event is to help to recycle clothing instead of just throwing them away, and giving them to people who need them,鈥� said Grade 5 student Zoi Hill-Gentles, who was among the group of youth preparing the items.
She explained families of students at St. Joe鈥檚 were invited to drop by the school during the conferences and 鈥渟hop鈥� for any donated items they might need.
鈥淎ll the clothes are free,鈥� said Anna Yakeleya-Grymaloski, who is also in Grade 5.
Students collected both summer and winter clothing for everyone from babies to young children and adults, she said.
Naledi Ndlovu said her Gr. 6 and 7 class came up with the idea for the donated clothing event with the help of a few teachers.
鈥淲e wanted to reduce and reuse things, because sometimes people buy new stuff and then sometimes if it doesn鈥檛 fit them they throw them away,鈥� said Ndlovu. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 want to waste that. Some people don鈥檛 have anything, so we鈥檙e trying to reuse some stuff.鈥�
Deanna Zawyrucha, a Grade 6 and 7 teacher at St. Joe鈥檚, was one of the teachers who organized the activity.
鈥淎 few of us teachers in a meeting were just discussing how we could help out our school,鈥� she said, adding another teacher had tried a similar event before. 鈥淲e have a lot of stuff, many of us. And some of us don鈥檛 have a lot.鈥�
It seemed like a good way to get gets giving back and learning about reusing the things they have.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 a big thing for me 鈥� reusing 鈥� just to get kids aware of the environment and recycling in general,鈥� said Zawyrucha.
鈥淭hey often think of pop bottles and juice boxes and they don鈥檛 always think of clothing to be recycled. So it鈥檚 a way of reusing and reducing.鈥�
