OACS News Service

Students from Ottawa Christian School’s (OCS) Grade 2/3 class raised nearly $300 to support Haitian relief efforts.
Ottawa Christian School students sell muffins to raise funds for Haitian relief effort
Teacher says children need to be enabled to contribute in a tangible way
Monday January 25, 2010 -- Michelle Strutzenberger
A day after the Jan. 12 earthquake wreaked havoc in Haiti, Ottawa Christian School’s (OCS) Grade 2/3 class sat discussing the disaster during morning devotions with their teacher Grace Sontrop.

Many of the students were already aware of what had happened and the people suffering as a result, and Sontrop says after praying together with the children, she felt compelled to enable them to respond in some tangible way.

“I thought, you can’t just leave children of that age with a huge problem like that. You need to enable them to do something.”

After some brainstorming, the students agreed to each bake a dozen muffins the following Monday, which was a professional development day at the school, and bring them to sell during snack time on Tuesday.

The class drafted posters to inform fellow students and also visited each grade to explain the plan.

Sontrop notes it was evident the disaster and suffering had touched the hearts of the children as they spoke to fellow students.

By 11 a.m. on Jan. 19, the Grade 2/3 class had collected $284.42 through the sale of a wide variety of muffins, from pumpkin to pineapple to blueberry.

An additional $40 was collected the following day through more sales, and, as well, two students dug into their own savings and each donated $5.

All the funds will be given to World Vision, which is currently working in Haiti. The students were also thrilled to learn that what they had raised will be doubled by the federal government, says Sontrop.

She adds she believes the whole experience has increased the students’ awareness of what is happening in that country and their interest in continuing to follow the situation.

When the 6.1 aftershock hit Haiti on Jan. 20, one boy explained about it in class the following day.

“They’re definitely watching and listening now,” she says.

Principal Paul Triemstra concurs with Sontrop that providing an opportunity for students to respond to a disaster like the Haitian earthquake is important.

“The children are inundated by images and reports of the disaster in Haiti,” he says.

“It is critically important that they learn that prayer is powerful, and a unique role for Christians is to pray for people who are suffering.

“Yet the children need to feel that they can act in a tangible and more visible way. In Haiti, they need cash and they need it now. This is something our students can do and feel empowered by doing.”

OCS responds annually to the ongoing difficulties in the Sudan by supporting a Christian school in Nairobi — Sud Academy — for Sudanese refugee children.

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