These are the inspirational stories of Metro Vancouver kids who work together to help those in need
“It’s a bag of flour,” nine-year-old Ivy Zhao announced gleefully as she plopped it in a red wagon pulled by her classmates along a New Westminster street.
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“It’s a good thing to fill you up!”
Ivy’s Grade 4/5 class at Connaught Heights Elementary was picking up donations after leaving flyers on doorsteps a few days earlier to announce the school’s annual food collection drive. For nearly 20 years, students have filled hampers to send home with needy Connaught families for the holidays.
“It makes me feel good because then I know I’m helping other people,” said Alessia Batliwalla, 10.
Going door-to-door to collect for the hampers, a project that teacher Andrew Eckert started nearly two decades ago, reinforces the spirit of giving for his young students.
“They do look forward to it, and I don’t think it’s just because they aren’t in math class,” the personable teacher chuckled. “My hope is that they associate the holidays with not just getting, but helping out.”
Across Metro Vancouver, there are many heartwarming examples of children and teens carrying out kind and generous deeds to brighten the holidays for vulnerable people.
And lending a hand continues to be urgently important in B.C.
Last year, Connaught filled large hampers for 10 needy families within the small school, plus four more boxes for families at a neighbouring school. This year demand is up, so the donations have gone to about 13 Connaught families, said Principal Tu Loan Trieu.
All eight classes from the school of 175 students recently fanned out to homes and businesses over roughly 20 square blocks, filling overflowing wagons with soup, granola bars, canned meat, and pasta and sauce. A local doctor’s office added six big boxes of food to the students’ haul, and a pharmacy gave $200 that was used for grocery gift cards.
“Everyone who doesn’t have enough food or enough money will be happy for it,” Grade 4 student Caleb Keech, 9, said as he collected beans and cereal from a porch.
The Grade 5 students, the seniors in this community school, assembled the hampers, ensuring each one had a mix of breakfast, lunch and dinner food. The parents who received the baskets could drop by the school to discreetly choose some donated toys and books for their children, Trieu said.
The student volunteers, who left thank you notes for their neighbours, learn important life lessons about the social responsibility of supporting people in the community, Trieu added.
This time of year can be challenging for families, so it’s important to give back.”
That sentiment is being embraced by children big and small this holiday season.
“Does he like stuffies?” Grade 11 student Wawa Bhebhe asked a mother picking gifts for her nine-year-old son.
“Yes,” replied the soft-spoken woman in a black baseball cap.
“You can choose one from the top shelf,” Wawa said, pointing to the large display of donated stuffed animals. She placed the mother’s choice, a brown monkey holding a red rose, in a large black bag.
Wawa and her Grade 11 classmates helped the mom collect other items from her son’s wish list: a tie-dye T-shirt kit, Spider-Man Lego and a Geronimo Stilton graphic novel.
There was no Baby Yoda on the shelves, but 16-year-old Zania Fabrig remembered seeing one in the cavernous bureau, a former Canada Tire store, and hunted it down for the appreciative mother.
‘Warm and fuzzy’ feelings
The bureau’s clients are grateful, Zania said, but she and her classmates also benefit because they feel like they are doing selfless and important work.
“You see it on (the parents’) faces, and you feel it internally also — it’s all warm and fuzzy, and I just feel so nice,” she said.
“When I’m shopping with the shoppers, and they pick things up and they’re so happy, I like to imagine their kids opening it up and being happy also. So then it makes me happy.”
Everyone who doesn’t have enough food or enough money will be happy for it.
Grade 4 student Caleb Keech
The students, who are part of Guildford Park’s Grade 11 humanities co-op program, volunteered two days a week since early November, cleaning the store, putting up decorations, and organizing donations.
About 2,300 needy families from Surrey — including more than 6,000 kids — will come into the bureau this year to choose from a huge selection of new items for babies, children and teens, all donated by community members. The parents also receive grocery gift cards purchased with $262,000 in financial donations.
The shoppers have diverse backgrounds, including many immigrants, said Rose Truong-Nguyen, 16.
“They come in from different countries. They can’t speak English, and we always try to do our best for them. We try to translate for them, and then we try to find the best toy for their kids because they always have preferences. Some like Beyblades, some like Lego, some like doll houses and Barbies,” she said.
“We try to make sure their family is happy and joyous, and they have a really great holiday.”
Rose speaks Vietnamese, Wawa knows three dialects from Africa, and their classmate Saleem Yaqubi has often translated for new arrivals from Afghanistan who speak Farsi.
Despite any language barrier, Saleem knows the parents are thankful because of their smiles.
“I like seeing people happy when they’re given things they normally cannot afford,” he said.
“They mention their kids, and they say how it’s thoughtful of us to help them.”
Besides making the students feel good, teacher Brent Schieve said the charitable work provides them leadership skills, as they learn how to phone businesses to ask for donations and communicate with parents about their holiday needs.
Schieve, who has taught the school’s humanities co-op course for several years, said many of his students develop a passion for volunteering.
“Kids will come back who did (the course) last year and ask if they can do the volunteering again,” he said.
Volunteering has become important to Rose, who said she is often taught in school about other people trying to change the world. “And then I thought to myself, ‘Why are we asking other people to go change the world when we can do it ourselves?’”
Karmin Dhindsa, the bureau’s executive director, said more low-income families are applying for aid this year, and the charity unfortunately can’t help all of them. But the bureau is supporting 15 per cent more families than in 2023, and the students have been a major help in fulfilling those holiday wishes — even volunteering outside their school hours.
“Some of them show up on Saturdays,” she said. “Some of them brought their brothers and sisters.”
One student, she said, told Dhindsa he had started his own charitable project to collect money from friends and family so he can make sandwiches for people without homes.
“He’s inspired by the work we’re doing here,” she said. “He wants to draw on that, but he’s very passionate about tackling food insecurity, so that’s his goal.”
Of course, generosity isn’t just important at this time of year. Children have been helping others throughout 2024.
‘The homeless need more stuff’
“We wanted to do something useful,” said Buhar, a Grade 4 student at Oppenheimer Elementary. “The homeless need more stuff than we do.”
It was a pleasure for us to contribute to this community and teach our children to strive and try to help those in need regardless of their location or ethnicity.
Rezan Suliman
Jeen, who is in Grade 2, said she wants to hold another fundraiser in 2025, this one to help people in hospitals. “She told me she wants to donate because she feels bad when people break their legs or arms, or have cancer,” added Buhar.
The sisters spent their early years living in tents in refugee camps in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, where their family fled after the Syrian civil war began in 2012. There was a “cooperative society” in the camps that instilled a helping-out culture among the children, which the family continued to practise after the Shaughnessy Heights United Church sponsored them to move to Vancouver in 2018, said the girls’ father, Rezan Suliman.
“It was a pleasure for us to contribute to this community and teach our children to strive and try to help those in need regardless of their location or ethnicity,” Suliman said.
This year on Mother’s Day, eight-year-old Evangeline held a “leMOMnade” stand outside the West Vancouver United Church, where her father Rev. Simon LeSieur is the lead minister. She raised $256 for First United, which provides shelter and other support for unhoused and vulnerable people.
“I decided to make a lemonade stand for donations for people, just to have a fun little drink,” the young girl said. “It makes me feel good, because I know they are going to use it for a good cause.”
Throughout 2024, kids in her Sunday school class put money in a jar that is pooled at this time of year for the Harvest Project.
‘It’s more kind and good to give’
For such a little person, Evangeline has a big understanding of the spirit of giving.
“If you have money and you have lots of stuff, everything you need, and there are people who don’t have enough money, like don’t have everything that they need, it’s more good and kind to give the money to them than keep your money for yourself,” the Grade 3 student said.
“These donations are invaluable to community members who face poverty, homelessness, or addiction. So we are really grateful for the hearts and generosity of the students,” said UGM’s Sarah Chew.
For 15 years, students at Richmond’s John Diefenbaker Elementary have done something similar, collecting hats, hand warmers, combs, soap and shampoo for people without stable housing.
Last year, the students filled 40 gift bags with assorted donations, and made a similar number this year, said Principal Regina Vosahlo.
Jackson Gunn and Finley Chan’s Grade 2 class helped to divide the donations and create the hampers.
“Every basket will have Band-Aids, socks, gloves and snacks,” explained seven-year-old Finley, who said this work makes him feel “happy and joyful.”
Jackson, also 7, said they learn about kindness at his school, so he knows that gathering these essential items for needy people is important. “Because they don’t have a home and no money, and they can’t afford things.”
Homma Elementary, also in Richmond, started a new program this year: Students created about 150 greeting cards for seniors in the community, said Principal Ginny Lee.
They range from crayon drawings with simple wishes made by the primary grades, to paintings with water colours and culturally neutral messages for the holidays by older children, Lee said.
Six-year-old Sofia Lai hopes a senior is left feeling “awesome” by her colouring.
“I drew a Christmas tree and there is snow falling down, and there’s decorations on the Christmas tree,” the Grade 1 student said.
Bryan Chan, also in Grade 1, is happy that his card may brighten the day of an older person who perhaps is alone at this time of year. “I drew a Christmas tree, a house, a sleigh, presents under the Christmas tree, and a Santa and also some reindeers.”
While making his card, Nathan Wang, 7, said he imagined it would make someone joyful.
“I was thinking about the seniors, making them happy,” the Grade 2 student said. “Because the card is colourful and bright, bold and beautiful.”
This holiday season, it could be the smallest efforts by the smallest people that bring the biggest joy.
