With students thinking about the upcoming school year, there are special moments etched in Thompson’s communal memory that should not be forgotten or overlooked when reflecting upon the many fine learning achievements of the previous year. Of note, the Thompson Kin Club is proud to highlight its amazing experience this spring in engaging with students throughout grades 2 to 12 at Deerwood School and R.D. Parker Collegiate.
Back in 2020, the Thompson chapter of Kin Canada created lesson plans to educate Deerwood and RDPC students about Kin Canada’s “Milk for Britain Campaign,” Canada’s largest civilian fundraising effort of its time that occurred from 1942-1948. Kin Canada fundraised close to $3 million to purchase and ship 50 million quarts of powdered milk overseas to prevent starvation among thousands of English children during World War II. Thompson Kin Club started the lesson with a 13-minute graphic novel style educational documentary, followed by a live presentation from a World War II survivor.
Originally from Birmingham, England, 83 year-old Alette “Ali” Eason of Winnipeg immigrated to Canada with her husband in 1964. Birmingham, among many other British cities outside of London, suffered repeated air bombings throughout World War II by the evil Nazi regime. Ali shared many enthralling accounts of how it was to survive these bombing raids as a young schoolgirl. Recalling a variety of moments that were vivid and sometimes frightful, Ali also shared how she had to drink the milk that was provided for thousands of English children like her by Canadians. At the end of Ali’s presentation, Deerwood and RDPC students were then presented with their Kin Canada Challenge.
Just as the “Milk for Britain Campaign” started as an idea to help others, participating classes were asked to identify a community need that they can support and, within a time limit of six weeks, complete a class project that would help that charitable cause. To this end, the Thompson Kin Club is proud to highlight the many amazing community projects that were completed this spring by the following classes of Deerwood ad RDPC.
Deerwood: Rachel McDonald’s Grade 2 class held a freezie sale. $204.10 in sales was donated to the Nanatowiho Wikamik Thompson Homeless Shelter.
Deerwood: Jackie Lafreniere’s Grade 4 class held a bake sale. $777 from sales was donated to the Thompson Humane Society and Northern Manitoba Paws in Need.
Deerwood: Focusing on child cancer awareness, Sarah Schroeder’s Grade 7 class used the unique artwork of a classmate to imprint on merchandise that was available for sale to the public. $1,500 was donated to the family of another Deerwood student undergoing cancer treatment, with the remaining $200 donated to Cancer Care Manitoba.
Deerwood: Caroline Voyer’s Grade 8 class collected 16 bags of garbage from the treeline that surrounds their school. With the school’s central location in town, the treeline tends to act as a filter for much of the city’s windswept litter.
RDPC Robyn Foley’s Grade 12 English language arts class held a bake sale. $240.05 was donated to the homeless shelter.
RDPC: Amanda Stillie’s history of western civilization class collected an astounding amount of food items for the Thompson Seniors Resource Council Inc., which distributed them in food hampers.
All projects were student-driven and facilitated by their homeroom teachers. As a result, the dynamic energy and committed passion of students from these schools have truly made Thompson a better place for all, embodying the Kin motto of “serving the community’s greatest need.”
The Thompson Kin Club would like to thank the equality and social justice committee of the Thompson Teachers’ Association for providing seed money to initiate many of these projects. The 13-minute “Milk for Britain” documentary can be viewed on YouTube through the Kin Canada channel.
Peter Frigo is the Thompson Kin Club’s centennial project chairperson.
