“For me, there’s so much more going on than the money we fundraise. What I find really exciting is the lessons the students are learning as they plan the event. You can never anticipate what sort of conversation you’ll have when you go to a company and ask for a donation—you’re essentially working like a mini-entrepreneur. When students come back and they’re super proud of themselves, it makes my day. When they see their own capacity as youth, it’s so exciting. They’re giving back, and I think it causes ripple effects. We become very close with the students we teach because we work to such a crazy capacity, so when you hear what they’re doing later on and sometimes they’ve gone on to work at some of the organizations we’ve assisted or they’re doing work around the world, it’s so cool when you hear their stories and you realize that it was maybe inspired from the time we all sat in a circle and decided what we were going to do for this fundraiser. Then they took some of their lessons and they’re teaching other people. Past students have literally contributed around the world ... and I love hearing those stories.”

“We have entertainment on stage. Last year we had a hypnotist and we do karaoke and stuff. At 3 a.m. when everyone’s getting really tire, we do a Mario Kart tournament which gets projected on screens beside the stage. There’s also always music going so you’re never bored. There’s a lot going on and a lot of stimulation.”

“This year the charity is the Jack Davis Hope Foundation. They are a local organization run by volunteers and they help families pay for the cost associated with caring for their ill children. It might be putting a wheelchair lift in their house or something like that. We had twenty-five charities apply to Scona and the leadership team narrowed it down to four and from there we did a school-wide vote and the Jack Davis Hope Foundation won the vote.”

“The campaign is called the 'Hope in Motion' campaign, that’s really the inspiration for the logo. The logo itself was a design competition for the grade tens. That’s how the grade tens dip their toe into this. The grade elevens run all the workshops and then the grade twelves run everything else to do with the campaign. It’s quite an amazing event. Our school motto is ‘as one who serves’ which I think these kids wear with pride.”

~Peri