A THORNHILL school class held a pre-Christmas bake sale and raffle, raising $607.40 for the local Terrace Sponsors Syrian Refugee Families group.
The effort on the part of Donna Rivet's Thornhill Elementary School's Grade 6 class is the first of any class in the area to aid the group, says one of its members, Greer Kaiser.
“According to Donna [Rivet], it was a perfect fit to give the money to the fund as part of the Grade 6 curriculum emphasizes compassion, kindness and civic duty, on a local, provincial or global level,” said Kaiser.
The Terrace Sponsors Syrian Refugee Families group is raising $27,000, some of which is for the immediate expenses of a family and the remainder to support it for a year.
A smaller group, called the Group of 5 in the terminology used by the federal government, is the official sponsor of a family and is now going through the needed paperwork to accept a family.
As well, more than $4,500 was raised by the larger group at a Dec. 12 spaghetti supper held at Knox United Church and attended by at least 200 people.
“Many tickets were purchased to be donated to people who otherwise could not afford the dinner. I would say we had about 20 people come and enjoy the dinner from that angle,” said Kaiser.
“Two of our committee took about 15 meals out after the dinner was over and handed out warm meals to people in need.”
Two shelters were the benefeciary of additional food that had been frozen, Kaiser added.
“It was very much a community event – not just a fundraiser for the Syrian refugee account, but also a community of people coming together to make the evening brighter for a few of our people in need,” she said.