Grade 8 Students and Breast Cancer

By Barbara Thompson

Last Updated: Jul 3, 2007
Articles & News : Articles : Community Focus

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What can Junior High students do for breast cancer patients in Nova Scotia?  Get creative and have fun, which is what a class of Grade 8 students from Annapolis Royal Regional Academy in Nova Scotia did in the early months of 2007.  PDR teacher, Michelle McGowan, had her 24 students brainstorm about a group project they could work on. 

The school work was meant to encourage the students to work together on something that could make a difference to the community at large.  Ms. McGowan related that, "The students could have chosen anything,  but for some reason breast cancer was on everyone�s mind. The school  custodian was going through breast cancer and they knew too many people who had been touched by it."

The students did an online search for an organization in Nova Scotia that could use their money for programs to help breast cancer patients. Breast Cancer Action Nova Scotia (BCANS) was the organization that fit their criteria.

The students planned for a month and came up with a plan to raise money to give to BCANS. They would use three fund raising options and launch the event on Valentine's Day.  The three options were carnations, candy-grams and power bracelets. In January, the students pre-sold orders for the February 14th event. The 24 students made beautiful Valentine cards to go with each and every order.   They then bought 130 carnations (red and white), 2000 pieces of candy and dozens of 'power' bracelets with various messages on them.

On Valentine's Day the cards, flowers, bracelets and candy were delivered to people throughout the school.  Some children had bought the gifts for their mothers or special people in their lives. The event raised $311!  This money will be used to help BCANS continue their work as the only breast cancer action group in the Atlantic Region.

 

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Barbara Thompson is the Managing Editor of the Atlantic Breast Cancer Net.

Have comments about this article? We'd love to hear from you. Please email us at abcn@abcn.ca!