A call by a local teacher to help those less fortunate has resulted in big dividends.
Darcie Alfini, a physical education teacher at Westview Freedom Academy in west Windsor, is calling on people to sponsor students who may not otherwise experience a Christmas.
Alfini told BlackburnNewsWindsor.com that she encouraged students in one of her classes to help students who are from lower-income families, and part of the English-as-a-Second Language (ESL) program. Her students quickly jumped in with an idea.
"My phys-ed leadership class just came up with the idea of a can drive," said Alfini, adding that they challenged another class to donate canned goods as well.
They did so well that Alfini could not decide who won the challenge.
Staff members at Westview were asked to nominate students they believed could benefit from the can drive. At the same time, Alfini put out a call on her Facebook page to the community to help out any whey they could. In addition to the canned goods collected by the classes at Westview, Alfini began hearing from people who wanted to go a step further to help.
"Some brought dolls and toys, and remote-control cars and even some of the Facebook people had reached out to us, and they actually went out shopping for individual families," said Alfini.
So much donated food came in that Alfini said it took a lot of work to divide it and haul it all, a task taken up by her phys-ed leadership students. The food and toys are being placed into gift baskets for families who are in need for the holidays.
Alfini pointed out that Westview is located in an area that was identified as having one of the highest rates of child poverty in Canada, so the fact that her students, some of whom come from families who are struggling, stepped up to help, was extraordinarily heartwarming.
"We covered 30 bins, 30 baskets, and about ten bags on the side because we had a lot of overflow," said Alfini. "One class ended up collecting 284 cans. Another class was 150. It was just amazing."