In the world of news, when there is a story out there and someone tells it before you do, you say, “I’ve been scooped.” Well, we’ve been scooped! Even though we have tweeted numerous times and referred in a blog entry to the generosity that occurred in the ECNS Gr 9 Syrian Crisis efforts, we still were scooped by a number of local media outlets. We are glad! It is a story that we hope will encourage others.
630 CHED, Global News, CBC News and NAIT News all did either a phone or an in-person interview with teacher Brady Van Ry and members of his Gr. 9 classes on Jan 25. A link to the CBC story is HERE.
For some of these students, this wasn’t their first interview about their work and learning in this project. Two students shown in the video, Eve S. and Aidan H. 
sat down with me on Jan 19 to tell me about their classes’ fundraising efforts. When I asked them how this got started, Eve told me that, “He [Mr. Van Ry] is very good at motivating people. He is very inspiring. You know it was set up that way, to make us want to do something, but then we all immediately kind of jumped on the idea.” She went on to say, “The thing he is trying to get across in a bunch of his courses is to stop dehumanizing people. He wants to make it clear that everyone is a person.”
That seemed to be a lesson well learned. A little later in the interview when I asked Aidan how this project affected him, his answer showed that kind of empathy, “Well, just the fact that these are people too, just like us; they have friends and families. You know, if we were in that situation we’d want people to help us too.”
$10,582! What a very generous community! When the funds are matched by the Canadian government, it will be enough for World Renew to feed 323 families of six for one month. “ It’s such a feeling to realize that what you are doing actually has an affect,” said Eve. “It’s not just, ‘well that’s a nice thing to do,’ but you are seriously helping people.”
One gets a feeling, talking with these two, that it won’t end here for them and their classmates. “It was a really neat learning experience,” Aidan offers. “Now that we have learned all this stuff, if something else goes wrong in the world maybe we’ll be able to make a difference there too.” Making a difference! God’s children living God’s story. We learn together and we give thanks!
by Brian Doornenbal
