Heart FM Local News
Woodstock Collegiate Institute was the site for this year's United Way Campaign kick-off for the entire Thames Valley District School Board.
This year's board-wide campaign is up again, to $359,000. The money will help support the efforts of the United Way in Oxford, St. Thomas-Elgin and London-Middlesex.
TVDSB Director of Education Laura Elliott tells Heart FM raising that large an amount is a collective effort. "The majority of the money would be raised from payroll reductions, so staff contributions. But there's also a significant amount of money raised through different activities, at every school and Thames Valley and through our Education Centre."
Elliott and several TVDSB officials were on hand to watch some student performances along a United Way theme, including a dance routine, and Jacob Paquette perform "Lean on Me". It displayed the kind of spirit that has helped one of the smallest high schools in the board come up large for the United Way, raising nearly $20,000 in the last 5-years.
Principal Chris Friesen, who also happens to be a Co-Chair this year for the Oxford campaign, says his school is always happy with what they're able to contribute. "We always both begrudgingly and quite happily finish 2nd or 3rd to IDCI, but it's a friendly competition. Hey, if we're all pushing ourselves to do better, we all do better and that just benefits the United Way. Being the smallest school in the east, we're never disappointed with what we raise."
Friesen says his message to the students is not so much about asking them to donate, as it is understanding what the United Way does. "If they don't know what organizations do, how can they make educated decisions about where to put their time and money? Everybody in this auditorium is going to end up with different amounts of time and money to give. We just want them to be educated...I think that's our job, to educate them."
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