Coin-spiracy 2003/04
UNI Coins in Action - Abbotsford (page 3)

As a kind act to self, Jackson Elementary students chose to beautify their school grounds by creating artwork, which they will hang on the school fence. Laughter and ideas were freely shared as these students enjoyed their creative time and had fun in the sun.

The following story has been submitted by Ted Perry from École Margaret Stenersen

École Margaret Stenersen continues to be involved with KindActs and the Coin-spiracy.

Over the years it has been relatively easy for École Margaret Stenersen to find kind acts to write about. Stenersen has been doing KindActs for many years. It's nice now to itemize some of these events and to let others outside the school system in on our endeavours.

Kind Acts for Self:

The entire school is rewarded for helping others, playing fair, sharing and helping to solve disputes. Students receive blue slips for their endeavours. If a student can accumulate ten blue slips, a letter goes home to their parents. The same happens at twenty, and after that certificates are handed out to the student who is acknowledged.

Kind Acts to the Environment:

At Stenersen, we are involved in the Encorp Recycling Program through Regional recycling in Abbotsford. Every two weeks Regional Recycling picks up our paper recyclables. In addition, we keep track of the number of pop cans, cartons, plastic bottles and juice pouches that Regional collects. We than tabulate this at the Encorp Recycling website.

This year we have collected over 7000 aluminum pop cans, over 900 plastic bottles (up to 1 litre), over 250 plastic bottles (over 1 litre), over 1200 juice pouches and over 3000 drink boxes. In total over 16,000 items have been recycled (this includes our annual bottle drive).

At Margaret Stenersen we have a Daffodil tradition. Each year all the students plant one daffodil bulb around the school. This year the planting took place between Oct 25 and Nov. 17th. In the spring we look forward to the beautiful yellow environment. Often, throughout the year, classes take turns in picking up litter from outside the school campus. Once a year (usually coinciding with Earth Day or Clean Sir Day) students leave the campus to gather litter from the surrounding area.

Kind Acts for the Community:

Remembrance Day Assembly: In November, we invite our school community to our Remembrance Day Assembly. Seniors are invited. Last year the Legion attended.

Christmas Projects: Our goal of contributing to the school and surrounding community takes on new meaning every Christmas. Every class helps out the community or school in some way. Random Acts of Kindness, Christmas boxes, a Toy Drive, Food Drive, visiting seniors' homes and raising awareness for abused women are just some of the activities that our classes are involved with recently. Hats off to all the teachers and students.

• Food Drive... During the Christmas season, our front hallway is full of items for the food bank. This year, over 1200 nonperishable food items were donated to the local food bank.

• Food Boxes... thanks to Madame Proulx and her grade 1 French Immersion class, over 15 Christmas boxes were filled and forwarded to the proper agencies for distribution.

• Think Of Me Bags - several classes coloured and decorated shopping bags with the slogan "Think Of Me". The bags were then given to ICBC and then to Liquor stores where they were used by the Liquor Board staff to use for their customers purchases.

Passing The Coin:

In June 2004, Margaret Stenersen elementary students presented IGA owner/manager with a Coin-spiracy act of kindness bookmark and certificate.

What IGA does for Margaret Stenersen Elementary:

Over the years, owner/manager Larry Wilson has supported Margaret Stenersen. Their MarketPlace 4 Schools program gifted the school $1300 two years ago and again this year. We have a voucher for just under $1200 to spend on computer related items at London Drugs.

Here are some other examples of IGA's support:

• On our food day in March, we received free hot dog buns and wieners from IGA. The PAC appreciated the donation and our food day made over $400.

• Every year at Christmas I give the entire student body a Japanese orange - thanks to a discount from IGA.

• In addition, throughout the year, I contact the store to help with food trays etc. They are very helpful.

In the future Margaret Stenersen will continue the great work in doing Kind Acts

Moving Across Canada - As a "kind act to self", Terry Fox Elementary students and staff are running or walking laps around the school field. In honour of their namesake, the school is attempting to cumulatively run across Canada (3 laps equals 1km).

At their monthly assembly, the PE teacher, Karla Stroet, adds the totals, tracks the distance on a large map and recognizes students who have run the furthest in their class.

"The act involves exercise, is good for our heart and lungs, partners older children with younger children to build responsibility and friendships, and educates us about the amazing acts of a hero", says Michele Pedersen, Youth Care Worker/Aboriginal Support Worker.

When we checked in with Terry Fox Elementary in the first week of April, students and staff had already run halfway through Quebec, all the way from British Columbia!

Terry Fox Elementary's kind act for another was to raise funds for Unicef. They raised $834!! ($250 can build a well in a village.)

The cheque was presented to Mr. Merve Grigg from Unicef by Kindergarten teacher, Ms. Jill Prins, on October 29th during a school -wide assembly. The K-5 students donated coins throughout the week to raise funds for Unicef. On Monday students brought pennies; Tuesday they brought nickels; Wednesday they brought dimes, and Thursday they brought quarters, loonies and toonies. Many of the classes counted their own donations and even rolled them. The teachers used this process to teach about money, counting, math, life skills, and history.

The school will be passing their UNI Coin to Unicef once they have completed their kind act to the environment.

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