Rockway raises $25,000 for food drive

January 13, 2021 | Focus On Education | Volume 25 Issue 2
Janet Bauman | Eastern Canada Correspondent
Kitchener, Ont.
Rockway Mennonite Collegiate student council members celebrate in the school parking lot after staging a pie-in-the-face incentive that helped to raise $25,000 for the school’s annual Christmas Food Drive, one way this small school makes a huge impact, according to the student council’s motivational video shown in the food drive kick-off chapel. (Photo by Jo Scott)

The annual Christmas Food Drive at Rockway Mennonite Collegiate is a big deal. It starts in November with a kick-off chapel and fun incentives. Normally, students collect non-perishable food for the House of Friendship, a local organization that provides Christmas food hampers for people living on low income.

This year, the need was greater, but the pandemic disrupted the usual ways of doing things. Motivated by a desire to help others, student leaders stepped up. Instead of collecting food, they encouraged students to raise funds.

In a motivational video they emphasized the school’s long legacy of giving and set a goal of $15,000. At $9,000, one student shaved his head, as promised. An outdoor “toonie toss” raised $600 more. With under a week to go, the students met their goal.

“We were beyond proud of our school but we wanted to push them to keep on donating” the students council wrote. So they reached higher, staging an outdoor “pie-in-the-face” incentive.

In total they raised $25,000, assured by grateful staff at House of Friendship that their gift of money was also “a gift of light and hope.” 

Do you have a story idea about Mennonites in Eastern Canada? Send it to Janet Bauman at ec@canadianmennonite.org.

Rockway Mennonite Collegiate student council members celebrate in the school parking lot after staging a pie-in-the-face incentive that helped to raise $25,000 for the school’s annual Christmas Food Drive, one way this small school makes a huge impact, according to the student council’s motivational video shown in the food drive kick-off chapel. (Photo by Jo Scott)

Hanneke Isert Bender, co-president of Rockway Mennonite Collegiate’s student council, tosses in the first $20 as she motivates her fellow students to get behind the school’s annual Christmas Food Drive, as a way to ‘put our words and faith into action.’ (Screenshot by Janet Bauman)

Share this page: Twitter Instagram

Add new comment

Canadian Mennonite invites comments and encourages constructive discussion about our content. Actual full names (first and last) are required. Comments are moderated and may be edited. They will not appear online until approved and will be posted during business hours. Some comments may be reproduced in print.