Coin-spiracy 2003/04
UNI Coins in Action - Fort St. James

The following story has been written and submitted by Denise Davidson, Grade 5 Teacher/ Leadership Committee Organizer.

Nak'albun joined the Coin-spiracy this school year thanks to sponsorship from Canfor. The school's Leadership Committee, which is made up of five grade 6 and 7 students, took on the responsibility and organized events for the whole school to participate in. Nak'albun is a small school of eighty-one students from the local bands.

The Leadership Committee decided they would do a presentation about the Coin-spiracy to each class in the school. They felt this would best get the information across and that it would be a great way to get ideas for kind acts. When the presentations were complete we had many great ideas of ways to be kind to ourselves, to another and to the environment.

Our first kind act was to fill a hamper with dry goods food for the safe haven here in Fort St James called the Fireweed Safe Haven. We gave them the hamper for Christmas and they responded by giving a Christmas treat to every child in our school. For the environment we have maintained the roads that go by two sides of our school property. Classes regularly take turns cleaning up the rubbish that collects on these roads. We know this is appreciated as residents of the town walk the roads daily and enjoy not having to see rubbish on their walks. The school also took part in the community's "Pitch In" week to make our town a cleaner place. The whole school participated in the National Alcohol Awareness Walk as a kind act to themselves. For Valentine's Day and Easter this year the leadership committee organized "telegrams" for students. Students purchased a treat and card for a friend and the leadership committee delivered them on the day. This put smiles on many faces, both the senders and receivers. The school also participated in Jump Rope and Hoops for Heart raising money for the Heart and Stroke Foundation.

Our major event was a penny parade. For one month we collected pennies. Classes were awarded prizes weekly for bringing in the most money. At the end of the penny parade the boys had out done the girls by only a small amount of money so both were given awards of free time outside and ice cream floats for their amazing efforts. In one month, the students brought in $525. This money was used for three more kind acts. $125 was donated to a contest to have one of the principals in our community sawed in half at a magic show. That money was then passed on to the Fireweed Safe Haven. $200 was spent on outdoor sports gear for John MacNeil Elementary School in Darmouth, Nova Scotia. The staff and students of John MacNeil School have agreed to be the recipient of our gold coin and will carry on the Coinspiracy on the east coast of Canada next year. The remainder of the money went to sponsor two minority group children of the Liang Shan People's Republic in a semi-autonomous region of China. The money we have sent will allow these children to go to school for one year each. It is our hope that we will continue to sponsor these children for years to come.

As the teacher sponsor of the Leadership Committee, it has been a pleasure to see the enthusiasm with which the committee and students of our school took on the challenge to do three kind acts. We are a small school with a great deal of heart. Thank you to Canfor for the opportunity and to the Kind Acts coordinators for their support throughout the year.

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