Louis St. Laurent pupils give a voice to the poor

Nobel Prize winner inspires students to raise money for Free the Children

- Photo Supplied Louis St. Laurent students' Vow of Silence Day raised $1,100 for Free the Children

By MOIRA LINTZ
Special to the WCR
Edmonton

I attended the Global Justice Week at Grant MacEwan College and after hearing Craig Keilburger speak, I shared some of his real and profound poverty stories with my classes.

"What can we do? We need to do something! We are selling chocolates as a school Lenten project, but we can do something else. What?"

That's all I heard from these 20 amazing Grade 9 students. It was repeated again and again in my class, until they finally convinced me to take them seriously.

Vow of Silence

They decided on a Vow of Silence Day.

For support and pledges, this is the letter they wrote themselves:

"Craig Keilburger, a 24-year-old youth Nobel Prize winner began the charity Free the Children when he was 12 years old.

"His bold actions have inspired our 9B class to take a vow of silence to be able to understand the suffering child labourers endure.

"These children have no voice. They are deprived of freedom of speech and have no opportunity to learn like a regular child. From young ages, these children are forced to work as child labourers. This is not how God wanted his children to live.

"On Day 3, from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., we will go through our day without communication or interaction with other people.

"To distinguish ourselves from others, we will be wearing white shirts marked with an X. Any pledges you would be willing to give shall greatly improve a child's life.

"These children do not have a choice: you do."

These 20 students raised $1,100 for Free the Children. This will aid in building a school in Sierra Leone.

As a teacher, I often hear disparaging stories about young people with "poor" attitudes.

I rarely see this in our youth. My students volunteer at the Marian Centre, Habitat for Humanity, YMCA, Youth Emergency, the Edmonton Food Bank, to name just a few. When asked to share, to fundraise and to donate, the youth of our school actively and joyously participate.

I feel honoured and blessed to teach these students. They give more to me than I could ever return.

Thank you to the students of Louis St. Laurent.

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