The zero waste packages are the biggest success of this project as they provide sustainable alternatives to the everyday items we use, and I am also very pleased with the resource brochures as they are easy to access and I believe they can help the community with finding easy ways to live a sustainable lifestyle.

 

If I could do things differently, I would have planned an online workshop for my project due to current circumstances. I am very pleased with how the packages turned out and I am confident they will make a positive impact in the community. I believe this experience taught me a lot about communication, planning, and research.

I think I would have leveraged social media and digital marketing earlier. There are new emerging channels to communicate with youth like Tiktok, Instagram Stories, etc. to spread messages and build communities that I had never thought of exploring, but would be open to looking into in the future, for other social projects.

STEMComp 2020’s target audience was all high school students in Ontario. This event allowed students interested in STEM to gain experience in various related fields through the means of a competition. We were able to impact and inspire students from all backgrounds to explore and pursue careers in the expanding field of STEM. This event provided an opportunity for curious students to experience all of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in further depth than in a regular high school curriculum.

I think there were three distinct groups which benefitted from the project, the families who receive the Summer Camp In a Box Packages, the youth volunteers and myself.

Firstly, the families who receive this care packages will positively benefit from the project. Due to cancer treatments, their kids are often immunocompromised, which means even as society starts to reopen these families are still vulnerable to any form of infection let alone COVID-19. These Summer Camp in a Box packages were created so they would have some fun activities they can do as a family throughout the summer, but also versatile enough that if their child is hospitalized throughout the summer, they are still able to make use of the activities. After talking to the Camp Director, Ben Pointer, he said that the families would be able to use many of the supplies we provided both at the camp since they are hosting two families at a time on camp property as well as in their homes. Despite Alberta being in phase two of reopening, the families are still unable to go to restaurants and other typical social outings because any potential risk of exposure to the virus could be detrimental to their immunocompromised child. As a result, they rely on volunteers from Kids Cancer Care to help with grocery deliver, food service and any activities that are brought into their homes. These care packages were intentionally donated to Kids Cancer Care because of their reputation for high standard of care toward families and diligence to ensure they stay safe from exposure to COVID-19.

The next group who benefitted from the project is the youth team I put together. They were really excited to be a part of creating something exciting for families this summer. It gave them the opportunity to come together to help their community which was really exciting for the youth. It was so much fun putting the packages together because I explained the purpose of the care packages and how many of each item went inside the boxes, but they turned it into a fun game where they were working together to be most efficient and still accomplish building the care packages. It was encouraging to see the youth really engaged with the project and excited to contribute to my passion project.

Lastly, I really benefitted from this project. As a child, I spent a significant time on the hematology/oncology unit at the Alberta Children’s Hospital and Kids Cancer Care had many programs on the unit which made the long hospital stays more enjoyable. It was amazing to have access to the Passion to Purpose Grants as a resource to give back to this organization which helped me as a child. This project challenged me to think about what would be useful for families who often deal with hospitalizations and the logistics of navigating the world while immunocompromised. I reflected on my experience receiving care packages and decided on what made hospitalizations and times of isolation more fun while also making them practical for families to enjoy things together in the summer months. This was really rewarding because it felt like I was truly making a difference for these families who did not have the option of going to camp this year due to COVID-19.