Helpfulness makes happiness

As we head into December, our learning community continues to be busy as students' question, innovate and pay it forward in order to make themselves and our community better. Our "Love and Warmth" initiative is in full swing as donations of food and clothing are being collected for those in need this holiday season. Please be sure to check out the posters below and speak to your child(ren) about how they are contributing to this school wide initiative that will culminate on December 12 with the Winter Market. Plans for this Winter celebration are coming together as classes are practising, crafting, creating and rehearsing everything from Christmas Tree decorations for the Festival of Trees to our student vendors who are stocking up their offerings, creating their marketing plan and rehearsing their sales pitch. I am excited to watch our students' Christmas performances, to sip on hot chocolate and have a visit with Santa while visiting students and families by the fire pits placed throughout the "Gingerbread Village". There will be something for everyone at this special event and we can't wait to see you there!

Check out the event map and details regarding event parking below. *Parking is a premium so carpooling is recommended if possible.

I also wanted to thank Mr Michael Gaultois, a burn survivor, as well as our RCMP school resource officers: Constables Gelinas, Moore and Epp and Deputy Fire Chief George Low from the Redwood Meadows FireHall for coming to our Fire Safety presentation that we hosted on Wednesday. Mr Gaultois' shared his story of his accident, his journey to recovery and his learnings in hopes of preventing similar accidents in the future. His message focused on several key ideas around fire safety: the importance of fire detectors within the home, consistently checking detector batteries, having a fire extinguisher handy, creating an escape plan in the event of an emergency and following one's gut to make safe choices. Significantly disfigured from his accident, Mr Gaultois also spoke to the students about "not judging a book by its cover", that "We are different but we are all the same" and we need to be grateful for what we have. This message reinforced the importance of kindness, acceptance, gratitude and personal resilience. Thank you Mr Gaultois for sharing these important messages!

Finally a big shout out to Mr Churchill and his grade 7/8 students that supported this week's rock climbing activities. The students had a blast!

This coming week will continue to be busy ensuring we are prepared for the Winter Market celebration. Looking forward to seeing you all then.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone,

Mrs Moore