Service Day is a really important event in the life of the Pickering College community. It emphasizes our commitment as a school to the value of servant leadership to others. On Thursday, April 22nd, all Senior School students, along with faculty and staff, gave of their time to 23 organizations including the Newmarket Food Pantry, Newmarket ReStore, CARD, the Scott Mission and New Leaf Farm. Students participated by packing and sorting food in the Food Banks, preparing and serving meals to clients at the soup kitchens, site clearing and maintenance at organizations like L'Arche Daybreak, and Trails Youth Initiative, office help at places like Big Brothers Big Sisters and Heart and Stroke, and delivering flyers for Habitat for Humanity, Heart and Stroke, and Neighbourhood Network. The day was a huge success with positive feedback received from our host organizations, staff, faculty and students alike.
Junior School students joined Service Day by participating in Jump Rope and Hoops for Heart, hoping to surpass their award-winning campaign of last year. At this time we are still awaiting the 2010 campaign results.
The Junior School kicked off this year's fundraising campaign for the Heart & Stroke Foundation with a bang. Heart & Stroke volunteer, Deb Bijman presented 2009 Gold Big Heart Award to Selena Stronach; last year's highest pledge earner. As well as the award presentation, students enjoyed an amazing skipping demonstration by the Stouffville Steppers during morning meeting. Representatives from the Heart & Stroke Foundation were on hand to tell the students about the research made possible by their fundraising.
The Junior School has won the Heart & Stroke Foundation Gold Big Heart award for the second year in a row for their fundraising for the 2009 campaign! The Big Heart award is given to the school that raises the most amount of money per student in our area which includes the regions of York, Durham, Peel and the GTA. Pickering College has the distinction of earning the highest per capita revenue out of all five regional awards that includes schools from Sault Ste Marie, Thunder Bay, Barrie, Hamilton, Brantford, Peel, York Region South, Ottawa, Timmins and Toronto.