Tag: #communityprojects

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Bailey Francis: Donates supplies and care-packages during the pandemic

Eunice Oquialda January 15, 2021

Bailey Francis donates supplies and care-packages during the pandemic in her community

How many hours did you spend on this initiative?

160- this is an estimate. 20 weeks @ 8/hrs per week.

What was the goal of your project? Do you feel you achieved what you set out to do?

The end goal of my project was to donate supplies to those who have been affected by COVID-19. I do feel like I achieved what I set out to do.

How many people were directly impacted by your project? What was their response to your initiative?

It’s hard to estimate how many people exactly were impacted by this project. I had different versions of care packages to four different organizations that work with populations that have been strained by the pandemic. I would estimate that between 100-150 people were directly impacted by this.

How did the community receive your project?

I received positive feedback from every organization I interacted with. Many were incredibly grateful to be receiving donations during this time.

What did you learn as you planned your project? Were there any changes you did not plan for? How did you adapt to these changes?

My entire project changed with the onset of COVID-19. The project I pitched at Passion to Purpose was not the project I ended up doing. I adapted to the changes as best as I could given the situation.

What went well with your project?

All donations were really successful and really well received by the organizations I worked with.

If you could do things differently, what would you do? What were the opportunities for learning you experienced?

The first set of care packages I did were really difficult to store in the place I’m living in and also were a bit difficult to deliver. I adjusted this after that set, but if I were to do the project again it is something I would consider right away. The biggest learning experience for me was managing a $15,000 grant while also being in school and having a part time job. It was definitely a large undertaking.

Do you have any suggestion or advice you would like us to share with other youth who are accessing the grant program?

Nothing is coming to mind at the moment, but if I think of something I will reach out! I would be more than happy to discuss my experience with youth applying for the grant program in the future!

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Photo of Bailey Francis

Bailey Francis, Award Participant and Passion to Purpose Grantee 

 

This is Bailey’s second project. Read about her first project here. 

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Passion to Purpose Community Grant today!

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Carissa Konesky: Online workshops for young women during COVID-19

Eunice Oquialda January 15, 2021

Carissa Konesky organizes online workshops for young girls during COVID-19

How many people worked with you on your project?

I had about 6 people working with me on this project including myself, our two speakers, and those who helped me advertise the program.

How many hours did you spend on this initiative?

I spent at least 10 hours per month planning activities, scheduling and attending meetings, and delivering hot lunches to hospitals.

What was the goal of your project? Do you feel you achieved what you set out to do?

I was lucky to attend the Passion to Purpose Bootcamp in March. At this event I had the opportunity to hear about several successful projects, and this inspired me to lead my own. I came home planning to organize a day of self-esteem workshops for 40 youth. A few weeks after, everything locked down for COVID, and I decided to put my project on hold. During lockdown I began noticing that youth needed the topics that I wanted to focus on, such as resilience and setting boundaries, more than ever. I decided to contact an organization that I had worked with extensively before, ShEvalesco, and they were happy to organize workshops for the girls. Alison from ShEvalesco and I put together 4 weeks of workshops around topics such as resilience, assertive communication and mindfulness. The goal of my project was to help youth feel more comfortable around these topics, as well as create a community where they could connect with others during the pandemic. We divided the youth into two groups, a 12-15 age group and a 16-18 age group. These are all topics that I feel are so important for youth to learn, and that I wish I was able to learn when I was in high school. All youth who completed all four workshops were given a certificate of completion, a crest and a workbook to continue learning about the topics we had covered.

At the end of the workshop we sent out a feedback form and received so many wonderful comments that showed me that I really did achieve what I set out to do. Here are some examples:

“This program has helped me feel more confident and resilient in many ways. I think that through the learning of each workshop I learned things that can be used in multiple scenarios. I think that things like learning about failure, boundary setting and being assertive are great skills to have because they allow you to communicate clearly with others and allow you to not be so hard on yourself. The self care workshop is also really helpful going forward to remember to take time for yourself.”

“Using the skills I have learned, such as being told that it’s okay to fail and make mistakes, and that we will not be good at something the first time we try it, it made me confident to take my test next week.”

“These workshops have given me more confidence because I now feel as though I’m not the only one who struggles with these common problems. I also enjoyed learning new skills that I can use in my everyday life.”

How many people were directly impacted by your project? What was their response to your initiative?

There was a better response to this project than I could have ever imagined. I did not have to advertise the workshops very much before they filled up. I simply posted them in a few youth program Facebook groups, and we immediately received many sign-ups. We were aiming to have 40 youth take part in each group, and we ended up having over 90 youth participate. All of the participants were very engaged throughout the whole program. Many of them mentioned how they liked that they had the opportunity to talk with other youth each week. It helped to form a small community.

 

Here are some other quotes from the participants about what they enjoyed:

 

“I am more resilient as I have acquired valuable skills from the workshops. Going forward I intend on using this knowledge and skills to better improve myself as a human both mentally and emotionally.”

 

“I learned a lot from the assertive communication workshop. I didn’t know the benefits of being assertive, and when I tried some of the strategies discussed in the workshop with others, I felt a lot more confident. My opinion of how others see me has become a lot more positive. The setting boundaries workshop was helpful as well; learning that setting boundaries is a kind and beneficial thing to do for everyone really helped me to say no to people when I need to.”

 

“The program has helped with my confidence and it helps me with standing up and talking to people that I normally don’t like talking to.”

How did the community receive your project?

One of the coolest parts of offering the workshops virtually was that we were able to have youth from all over Canada engaged, including youth in very small towns. Some of the youth would not have had the opportunity to participate otherwise, so the fact that these workshops were virtual ended up being a very positive thing.

One of the best parts of the project was receiving the feedback and having the girls let me know how much the workshop impacted them. I also received several emails from parents that let me know how impressed they were with the content. I truly believe that these are topics that youth want and need to learn more about.

Here were some of the things that the youth mentioned they enjoyed:

“My favourite part of the workshops was the real life examples and scenarios. I thought that applying the skills we talked about to plausible situations that are similar to ones I will probably encounter really helped to increase my confidence, and helped me to remember what we learned.”

“I liked when we broke off into small groups and we talked to other girls. I liked it because I felt like other girls could relate to relate to what I was feeling and going through. It made me feel better.”

“I personally enjoyed the Self care workshop as I have recently observed that I need a little more compassion and love towards myself. The workshop really helped me acquire more knowledge on the steps towards ultimate self love and care.”

What did you learn as you planned your project? Were there any changes you did not plan for? How did you adapt to these changes?

I learned so much about the topics that youth are interested in learning about. I am hoping to run more programs around similar topics, as well as different topics. Youth have indicated to me that they are very interested in learning about things such as money management and mental health, so I will be looking for more ways to offer similar programming. This experience has shown me how impactful virtual programming can truly be.

Once we began planning the program, we really did not need to make many changes. The program ran very smoothly.

What went well with your project?

I feel that most of this project went very well and ran very smoothly. The fact that we were able to engage so many youth from across Canada, and teach them different skills that were useful, made this a successful project. It was especially meaningful to be able to connect with youth in different parts of the country. Reading the feedback let me know that this was a project that was very successful. The fact that I was able to organize a program where youth were able to learn more assertive and communication skills, and where they were able to create a country-wide community during a global pandemic, was just awesome.

If you could do things differently, what would you do? What were the opportunities for learning you experienced?

When I originally planned the workshops, I did not think that we would have interested youth from all over Canada. I thought that most of the participants would be from British Columbia, so we planned the sessions to be on Monday evenings. The 12-18 group was from 6:45 to 7:45. It ended up being quite late for many of our participants in more Eastern time zones. We still had a lot of participants from these time zones, but we could have had even more if we had picked a time that would work for participants across Canada. If I run these workshops again, I would most likely host them on a weekend so that we could find a time that works for everybody.

I am looking forward to organizing more engaging opportunities for youth. This opportunity has helped me learn how to make virtual events more engaging. Things such as break out rooms, asking questions in the chat and giving you scenarios to work on helped keep the youth engaged for the entire time. I will use these strategies going forward in the future. I also learned it’s important to give youth an incentive to keep them engaged. Having the certificate of completion, workbook and crests offered at the end to those who completed the program further encouraged them to attend each session.

Do you have any suggestion or advice you would like us to share with other youth who are accessing the grant program?

Do not be afraid to take on new initiatives, even during the pandemic! There are so many cool virtual opportunities that can be done now. People want to be involved and engaged more now than ever. Do not be afraid to reach out to other organizations for help too! I had an amazing experience working with ShEvalesco and learned so much about hosting virtual events from Alison. There are many other organizations who are open to helping to offer similar experiences! It is such a good opportunity to learn new skills, develop your confidence and make a difference. Go for it!

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Carissa Konesky, Award Participant and Passion to Purpose Grantee 

Do not be afraid to take on new initiatives, even during the pandemic! There are so many cool virtual opportunities that can be done now. People want to be involved and engaged more now than ever. Do not be afraid to reach out to other organizations for help too!

Carissa Konesky

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Passion to Purpose Community Grant today!

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Cadence Loiselle-Shire: Reusable masks for her community

Eunice Oquialda January 15, 2021

Cadence Loiselle-Shire makes reusable cloth masks for her community

What was your project about?

We work primary with three organization (1justcity, Siloam Mission and Agape Table) making reusable cloth masks. The impact of the project was to provide protection to individuals in need during the COVID-19 Pandemic. The masks were also able to be used by staff at organizations to allow them to continue to provide services.

How did you recruit and involved your peers in the project?

I was the only main person working one this project the only other help I had was from my mother Cassandra Loiselle-Walker. My mom also used her FaceBook and Instagram to make people aware that I was sewing masks with my mom and that for every mask my mom donated she was also donating a mask for my project. a. Because of COVID there was no one event. I egnaged people through my social media platform and the non-profit organizations. During the final push to complete the masks for my project, I did recruit my grandmother to help with the pinning and pressing, allowing me to work with the three generations of women in my family, even using my great-mothers sewing machine from the 1970s to help complete the project.

Who did your project engage and what impacts did you and your team achieve?

The target audience we had was low income people get access to reusable masks. We did what we set out to achieve we donate/worked with non-profit organization to help low income people have excuse to reusable masks that we made.

What was your biggest success achieved through your project?

Knowing that I had the will power to make 180 masks and putting that in to prospective each mask can take up to 30-45 minutes per mask also, learning how to film videos and edit them.This will help me in future endeavours, including maybe looking at a bigger project through Passion to Purpose with my Cadet corps.

What lessons learned through your project.? If you were to start your project today, would you do anything differently?

If I were to start my project today, I would put more emphasis on marketing. Due to the sudden switch to a remote competition, most of the marketing for the original event could no longer be used. With the change of plans and environment, we had limited time to do a wide variety of tasks. While it was difficult to attract a large number of participants in a small amount of time, our marketing team did a fantastic job of attracting a fair number of participants in the end. Through this event, I learned the importance of having a good communication system where the roles of members could be clearly defined. With better communication, not only would the sudden transition from in-person to remote work be much smoother and more efficient, but it would also make marketing the event much easier.

What did you learn as you planned your project? Were there any changes you did not plan for? How did you adapt to these changes?

As I planned my project, I further developed my communication and organizational skills. I needed to coordinate with both my peers – many of whom I had not known beforehand – and other groups such as the staff at the heal care facility. One of the changes that I did not plan for was the busy schedule of hospitals. The initial hospital I contacted was not available on the set date, so I had to adapt to this situation by contacting other care centres and hospitals.

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Cadence Loiselle-Shire, Award Participant and Passion to Purpose Grantee 

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Michelle Liu: Ready-made meals for healthcare workers

Eunice Oquialda January 15, 2021

Michelle Liu provides ready-made meals for healthcare workers

How many people worked with you on your project?

We have approximately 5 to 6 team leaders from different schools across British Columbia. Each team consists of three or four members, and their duties include organizing events in each school. Together, we are able to support healthcare workers through monthly lunch deliveries.

How many hours did you spend on this initiative?

I spent at least 10 hours per month planning activities, scheduling and attending meetings, and delivering hot lunches to hospitals.

What was the goal of your project? Do you feel you achieved what you set out to do?

This project was intended to provide a support service for local health care workers. The healthcare industry has been focused upon dealing with COVID-19, and they have continued to operate despite interruptions to other ancillary services. Inspired by their professionalism and dedication to their work,  I feel that I have achieved my goal through delivering hot lunches, the healthcare workers have recognized that they are not fighting the virus alone. 

How many people were directly impacted by your project? What was their response to your initiative?

The snacks and lunches were received by a care centre of almost 100 healthcare workers. Upon receiving our delivery, the healthcare workers were delighted, commenting to us that “we need more young people like this”. Across the lower mainland of British Columbia, high school students from Crofton House School, Collingwood School, Rockridge Secondary, Point Grey Secondary, and Moscrop Secondary directly worked with me and developed their leadership and communication skills through participating in the initiative. As our social media platform and official website (mercicharity.com) continue to grow, the number of people impacted by my project continues to increase.

How did the community receive your project?

The food drive was directly delivered to hospitals and healthcare centres. The health care workers were grateful for the hot lunches, and expressed the desire to see similar initiatives from local youth in the future.

What did you learn as you planned your project? Were there any changes you did not plan for? How did you adapt to these changes?

As I planned my project, I further developed my communication and organizational skills. I needed to coordinate with both my peers – many of whom I had not known beforehand – and other groups such as the staff at the heal care facility. One of the changes that I did not plan for was the busy schedule of hospitals. The initial hospital I contacted was not available on the set date, so I had to adapt to this situation by contacting other care centres and hospitals.

What went well with your project?

I successfully achieved my goal of showing the healthcare workers our appreciation while providing a useful and valuable service, especially in light of similar services being restricted due to pandemic regulations. In addition, I was able to indirectly spread awareness in my community of the need to support local healthcare workers.

If you could do things differently, what would you do? What were the opportunities for learning you experienced?

My project overall went very smoothly. If I were to improve my initiative, it would be further communicating with the hospitals to see if they have other needs such as medical equipment or supplies that we might acquire.

Do you have any suggestion or advice you would like us to share with other youth who are accessing the grant program?

My project overall went very smoothly. If I were to improve my initiative, it would be further communicating with the hospitals to see if they have other needs such as medical equipment or supplies that we might conduct fundraisers to acquire. Good luck!

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Michelle Liu, Passion to Purpose Grantee 

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Passion to Purpose Community Grant today!

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Shelan Emre: Care-packages for newcomer families

Eunice Oquialda October 20, 2020

Shelan Emre provides care packages for newcomer families during COVID

What was the goal of your project?

After my project was adapted the goal was to provide summer essentials for 50 newcomer families in Winnipeg. I wanted to provide toys, games, snacks, toiletries, school supplies, and information about the city for newcomer families. I have accomplished my goal and I think by providing the families these baskets of goodies, they were able to explore the city and ease the financial stress that comes with having fun in the summer especially during this pandemic.

How many people were directly impacted by your project?

The response from my project has been overwhelmingly positive, not only from the families directly impacted but by my team and my families and friends. I made 50 baskets and provided them to 50 families. Those 50 families consisted of 98 adults and 205 youth.
All the families were gracious of the packages, but some showed it more than others. Roza was a 4-year-old girl and she was so excited to see the ABC Canada Book and couldn’t wait to learn how to read it! There was another family who received a rainbow loom kit and the 11-year old girl said, “thank you so much, I have always wanted a rainbow loom!”. Ali was a 6-year-old boy who was over the moon excited when he saw the giant colouring book and the plethora of Crayola supplies, he couldn’t wait to colour! Zachary was a 4-year-old boy who received a golf set and when he saw it he couldn’t help but immediately open it up and start playing! Seeing the excitement from the kids was so amazing and unlike anything, I had ever seen. Seeing the excitement the families showed was so rewarding, I could visually see myself making a difference in the community. These families have gone through so many struggles since being in a new country I was so glad I was able to provide them with these care packages.

How did the community receive your project?

My community has provided positive feedback and has shared my project on their website and there will be an article in the next newsletter, this is very exciting. I posted the project on my personal FaceBook and Instagram accounts and only got positive comments and messages about the impact I am making and encouragement to keep going on my path of making change.

What did you learn as you planned your project? Were there any changes you did not plan for?

I learned so much from this project. My original project was a full day event with newcomer youth and that was adapted due to the Coronavirus and the social distancing percasuions. Once I made my new plan of care packages for newcomer families, I had only minor hiccups. One of the hardest challenges I faced was regarding the shopping. Once I had my shopping lists ready with quantities and price-matches noted it and I went to the store most times I wasn’t able to purchase all the quantities I needed. I was able to get around this by ordering online, visiting multiple stores for the same items and returning to the same stores once they had more stock. Another challenge I faced was the language barrier, but I was able to overcome that by working with volunteers who spoke multiple languages as well as talking slowly. For safety reasons I didn’t want to delivery, the packages to the families by myself so I had to rely on others to come with me, coordinating times was a challenge that was easily overcome by first coordinating with the families followed by the volunteers.

What went well with your project?

I am so proud to say I learned so much about myself, my community and non-profit work from this project. I had so many successes and they have only motivated me more to continue making community impacts. My most successful accomplishment and moment from the project was delivering the baskets to the families and seeing the kids so excited and the parents so gracious!

If you could do things differently, what would you do?

Overall, I think my project was very successful and was executed smoothly. If I was to do this project again, I would have like to allow for more time to get to know the families on a personal level. I learned about the struggles specific families faced and the reasons they came to Canada, this was extremely sad in some cases and only makes me proud to be Canadian. I would have liked to hear from more families about their journey, and how they came to Canada. This was the biggest project I have been the lead for, and I continued to develop my skills as a delegator, leader and team member. I was able to use my problem solving skills during times of challenge.

Do you have any suggestion or advice you would like us to share with other youth who are accessing the grant program?

I am so proud of all the success and support the Award has provided and I am so grateful for the opportunity. My advice for anyone who is considering the grant would be to just go for it, although it can seem daunting and scary it is important to remember this is your passion and the impact that is made from the use of the grant is incredible. I would remind those who are accessing the grant program there is so much support all around you. For me, I had all my friends from the award as well as the staff who had amazing recommendations and were always there to help when I had questions. 


A struggle I faced during this project was finding myself comparing my project and my abilities to others. While I was happy and proud of the change my friends were making in their communities, sometimes I felt like I wasn’t doing enough. My recommendation to others starting projects would be to remember comparison is the thief of joy, we don’t need to compare ourselves to be happy for others or encourage others but rather be motivated by the success we are surrounded with. No change is too small, and our impacts are only going to get greater!

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Shelan Emre, Award Participant, Passion to Purpose Scaleup Participant

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Lauren Wong: Ice Skate Workshops

Eunice Oquialda October 20, 2020

Lauren Wong provide free ice skate workshop for disadvantaged children

What was the goal of your project?

Our goal was to provide an opportunity for disadvantaged children to learn to skate for free. The program was very successful! All of the participants exhibited incredible growth in their skating skills and confidence on the ice.

How many people were directly impacted by your project?

We had 6 participants this session, and all of the children were very excited about the program and the opportunity to try skating. Most of them had never been on ice before, and although they were nervous at first, they improved over the weeks and became more confident and independent on the ice.

How did the community receive your project?

Most of these families did not have the resources or financial support to provide their kids with skating lessons. Because we received sponsorship to cover the cost of skating equipment and ice, each family was really grateful for this free program. Parents were amazed at how much their kids learned, and the participants were eager to come to each session.

What did you learn as you planned your project? Were there any changes you did not plan for?

I found it difficult to find ice and book a venue. In the planning stage I had to call all the ice rinks in Calgary, only to be left with one that had availability. Due to COVID and the new social distancing restrictions, it was a challenge to find appropriate ice times and ensure that all participants followed the regulations. I persisted in checking the ice times and directly calling the rink to secure ice time. The skating rink also did not allow spectators, so we had to adjust and have parents watch the sessions online. We made sure to communicate effectively with parents so they felt reassured that their children were safe.

What went well with your project?

We successfully equipped all participants with skates, helmets and gloves from our partner, Professional Skate. By the end of the sessions, all of the participants were able to move on skates by themselves, including skating forward, backwards, turning, stopping and jumping on the spot. It was so rewarding to see how each child improved! They are eager to continue skating, and I aim to run another session in the Fall to offer previous participants to return and build on their skills while expanding our reach to new participants.

If you could do things differently, what would you do? What were the opportunities for learning you experienced?

I would have recruited more participants. I think I could have taken on more participants and it would have been fun to do group activities with more people to allow the children to benefit more socially. I learned how to manage the administrative aspects of the program, including coordinating the budget, communicating with sponsors and families, and securing ice. I also became more comfortable working with children and taking leadership on the ice to help them develop skating skills.

Do you have any suggestion or advice you would like us to share with other youth who are accessing the grant program?

I would advise others to take advantage of resources and connections they have. It can be very helpful to have support or alternate opinions as you go through your project, and you can learn from others.

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Lauren Wong, Passion to Purpose Participant

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Hanna Wang: Zero Waste Packages

Eunice Oquialda October 20, 2020

Hannah Wang encourages community to use zero waste products

What was the goal of your project?

The goal of my project was to provide zero waste packages to my community to encourage and help support people in my community to live a more sustainable lifestyle along with education on sustainability. I was able to provide the packages and resource brochures to Ecosource, and in doing so I believe this can help more people in the community start their journey towards an eco-friendly lifestyle.

How many people were directly impacted by your project?

At least 100 people were directly impacted by my project through ZWP’s Instagram account which serves as the education and resource platform for the project. The number will increase by at least 50 people and (potentially more) when the resource brochures and zero waste packages are distributed in the community.

How did the community receive your project?

The community will receive my project through the zero waste packages I put together from Ecosource. Ecosource has provided positive feedback of the eco-friendly kits, and I hope to hear more feedback from the people who will use the actual packages.

What did you learn as you planned your project? Were there any changes you did not plan for?

There were definitely changes that I did not plan for. Initially I planned on doing a workshop to educate the community on sustainability, provide resources and hand out the zero waste packages. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and public health concerns, I was unable to hold a workshop. I adapted to these changes by donating the packages and resources directly to Ecosource. They will distribute the packages on my behalf once it becomes safe enough to do so. Since Ecosource is a non-profit organization focused on the environment and being eco-friendly, I am confident in their ability to provide education of the packages and resources to the community.

If you could do things differently, what would you do? What were the opportunities for learning you experienced?

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.

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Hannah Wang’s Zero Waste Package

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Leah Davidson: Online career workshops

Eunice Oquialda October 20, 2020

Leah Davidson organizes online career workshops for underprivileged high school and university students during COVID

What was the goal of your project?

The goal of the project was to help provide career exposure and guidance to underprivileged high school and university students through talks, online resources, mentorship, etc. We were able to achieve a lot of the goals and expand a website focused on project-based learning to add additional features/tools for students (video conferencing, project management tools, job search coaching, etc.) and we are still continuing to work on the project and expand to reach a wider audience. We are hoping to raise additional funding and recruit more volunteers moving forward to meet the needs of high schools and universities continuing with remote work-integrated learning.

How did the community receive your project?

The community was very receptive and interested in participating. At first, high schools and universities were going mostly virtual, which made it hard to reach students, as the schools were so overwhelmed with the transition. We started then reaching out to students directly through social media and forming a Facebook group to keep in touch. The students gave us input on what kind of topics they were most interested in hearing about and we were able to directly learn about their needs through online surveys.

What did you learn as you planned your project? Were there any changes you did not plan for?

We had to adapt to COVID in the middle of everything, so we transitioned everything online, offering webinars and virtual panels instead of going directly into the schools. We had to transition our budget in order to hire a developer to build the website to host the projects and webinars, and we had to move quickly to get resources up-and-running for students who had lost summer jobs/internships.

If you could do things differently, what would you do? What were the opportunities for learning you experienced?

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.

Do you have any suggestion or advice you would like us to share with other youth who are accessing the grant program?

I would highly recommend giving it a shot. The P2P team is always eager to help and the process is straightforward and well-organized!

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Leah Davidson, Passion to Purpose Participant

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Katherine Qin: STEM Competition

Eunice Oquialda August 25, 2020

Katherine Qin organizes STEM competition for high school students

TELL US ABOUT THE ACTIVITIES AND IMPACT OF YOUR PROJECT

This event allowed high school students the opportunity to dive deep into the STEM fields that will drive our world forward. For many participants, STEMComp was their first high school science competition, a special and unforgettable experience. We hoped to inspire students to be curious and further explore the field of STEM out of their own interest.

 

This year, we challenged students across Ontario to explore their passion for STEM through creative problem-solving. Due to COVID-19, we ran a remote competition. Students needed to think of a problem, think of a way they could use STEM to solve the problem, create a project that put their solution in action, and make a 5-minute (maximum) video that presents their project.

TELL US HOW YOU RECRUITED AND INVOLVED YOUR PEERS IN THE PROJECT

All of the organizers of this event attended the same high school and were executive members of the SJAM SS Science Club. It was decided that hosting this event would be one of our responsibilities as leaders of a STEM youth group. Each organizer had unique skills that would be used to make this event a success. Due to the pandemic, engaging and bringing together all of the organizers was a bit of a challenge. To overcome this challenge, we held weekly stand-up meetings to discuss any issues or concerns we had. There, we also discussed the next steps and delegated the work.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR BIGGEST SUCCESS ACHIEVED THROUGH YOUR PROJECT

We feel that this project’s biggest success was the achievement of our three goals that we outlined at the beginning of the event: to encourage students in high school to get involved in their local STEM community; to raise awareness within the region’s STEM initiatives and programs; and to promote equality within the STEM community. Through the completion of this event, we were able to engage students from Ontario and encourage them to familiarize themselves with current relevant issues in STEM and local STEM opportunities.

WHO DID YOUR PROJECT ENGAGE AND WHAT IMPACTS DID YOU AND YOUR TEAM ACHIEVE?

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.

Tell us about the lessons learned through your project. If you were to start your project today, would you do anything differently?

If I were to start my project today, I would put more emphasis on marketing. Due to the sudden switch to a remote competition, most of the marketing for the original event could no longer be used. With the change of plans and environment, we had limited time to do a wide variety of tasks. While it was difficult to attract a large number of participants in a small amount of time, our marketing team did a fantastic job of attracting a fair number of participants in the end. Through this event, I learned the importance of having a good communication system where the roles of members could be clearly defined. With better communication, not only would the sudden transition from in-person to remote work be much smoother and more efficient, but it would also make marketing the event much easier.

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Katherin Qin, Passion to Purpose Participant

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Amy Skinner: Summer Camp in a Box

Eunice Oquialda July 24, 2020

Amy Skinner from Alberta created 'Summer Camp in a Box' for Kids Cancer Care in the midst of the pandemic

TELL US ABOUT THE ACTIVITIES AND IMPACT OF YOUR PROJECT

Using my Passion to Purpose Grant, I created Summer Camp in a Box for Kids Cancer Care, an Alberta organization which supports families affected by pediatric cancer diagnoses. Initially, I had hoped to donate through the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation, however they were not taking donations at the time I started my project due to COVID-19. I chose to work with Kids Cancer Care because I was personally familiar with some of their activities and community involvement. After emailing Kids Cancer Care, I was made aware that their summer programming for families at Camp Kindle was cancelled due to COVID-19 so they were in need of summer activities for their families. This was a wonderful opportunity to create Summer Camp in a Box so families could have something to enjoy together whether they are outside or hospitalized. The camp director was wonderful in explaining a few items they really wanted inside the packages and I chose the remaining items based on what I would have wanted as a child on the hematology and oncology unit to enjoy with my family.

TELL US HOW YOU RECRUITED AND INVOLVED YOUR PEERS IN THE PROJECT

I started talking to my friends and family about this project and was very grateful that they supported it right from the beginning. The youth who helped with assembling these care packages were close family friends who are in our bubble of families due to COVID-19. Since we had contact with them throughout the pandemic and were seeing few people outside of our families, it was safe for us to come together to build the care packages. The volunteers ranged in age from 14-20. They were recruited because I had discussed the project with them and they expressed interest in helping with it.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR BIGGEST SUCCESS ACHIEVED THROUGH YOUR PROJECT

Overall, I found the project to be really successful. I was worried that the youth might not rally around my project, but found that if you portrayed your excitement for it, the youth would pick up on it and support it. The youth made the project really enjoyable because they recognized its importance while also interacting with each other to build the packages. It was a good reminder that though society has primarily used technology for interaction in recent months, nothing can fully substitute working alongside someone in person to build each other and the community up.

WHO DID YOUR PROJECT ENGAGE AND WHAT IMPACTS DID YOU AND YOUR TEAM ACHIEVE?
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.

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.

Tell us about the lessons learned through your project. If you were to start your project today, would you do anything differently?

I learned that it can be a great conversation starter with people I didn’t know. When making my purchases, often the cashier would ask about what I was doing with such a large quantity of items. Through explaining I received a grant to create Summer Camp in a Box packages for Kids Cancer Care, they seemed very interested and inspired to do something similar. While I may not know if they ever complete a project of their own, I am encouraged that other people are supportive of these community projects and would be willing to assist people in their community in doing something similar. 

 

Surprisingly, I also learned that it can be difficult to spend your entire budget. Initially, I budgeted everything at full price and found I could only afford to create 21 of these packages. However, I found most of the items I had budgeted for full price on sale, so I ended up saving a lot of money. In the end, I ended up creating 24 packages with more items in it than initially planned for. It was a new experience doing so much math in the store to ensure I was using my grant to its fullest potential and adjusting my budget accordingly so it tracked all of my purchases. 

 

I hope to do a similar project in the future and use what I have learned to make any kind of care packages very meaningfully for the families. I think I would still create a budget based on fully prices, but also create a list of potential additional items in case I find my core package items on sale so I can continue to be intentional about the items in the care package. I really like giving back to families with children in the hospital because I have been in their shoes and recognize some of the needs they have. It helps me to reflect on my experiences as a child and also feel like I am contributing to a community which has positively impacted me.

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Amy Skinner, P2P Acadia 2019 Alumni

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Passion to Purpose Community Grant today!

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