OACS News Service

A SickKids team visited GCCS Feb. 14 for the blood collection program. GCCS was the first school to participate in the program.
Guelph Christian School Students Participate in SickKids Blood Collection
Friday February 22, 2013 -- By GCCS prinicpal Bob Moore
At Guelph Community Christian School (GCCS), one of the goals of our strategic plan is to be recognized in the local community as serving the public good.

This goal has been stressed by the Ontario Alliance of Christian Schools for several years now, and gave rise to what was called the Good Neighbour Campaign.  

To counter the stigma that might be attached to private schools, Christian schools have to be able to prove that we serve the public good. And it is not that hard.  

First and foremost, GCCS serves the public good by graduating well-educated students who bring a Christ-servant perspective to how they live.  

Unfortunately, this benefit might not be so obvious to the public, so GCCS looks for more concrete ways to demonstrate how it is contributing to the public good. When we had an Open House in the autumn, we partnered with  a bicycle-for-Africa mission group to have a bicycle collection event in our parking lot.  

Every year, we sing the national anthem, with amazing skill and passion, at one of the home games of the local Ontario Hockey League team. And recently, GCCS was approached by SickKids hospital to participate in a blood collection program that would be used to establish up-to-date benchmarks for normal ranges for blood components. SickKids is very public, and very well-respected, so when GCCS got a chance to partner with them, we took it.  And we invited the local paper to come and witness it.  The feedback has been tremendous!  

Click here to read an article from the Guelph Tribune on GCCS' participation.