The music is blaring, chasing away the gloom of a dismal day.
Young people are dancing in tune to the rock beat while more youths swarm up the hill.
This is no rock concert. It’s Water Walk, a concerted effort by 300 to 400 School District #83 students to make the world a better place.
Held at South Broadview School for the second year, Water Walk has grown from three Grade 4/5 classes to include students from Hillcrest, Bastion, Shuswap Middle School and the Jackson and Sullivan campuses of Salmon Arm Secondary.
Loud and in high spirits, the students headed down the hill to the pond near Okanagan College, where adults were standing in the water ready to fill their pails for the steep hike up the hill to three large containers.
Last year, the 90 kids who participated carried 600 litres of water back to the school – this year, it was an impressive 2,400 litres of muddy, murky water.
There were raves all-round – from excited students to School District #83 director of education Wendy Woodhurst, Healthy Schools co-ordinator Laura Paiement, South Broadview Principal Carl Cooper and Janu Smith, Earl Dodds and Kim Shuert, the three teachers who initiated the fundraising event last year.
Woodhurst, Cooper and the teachers wore smiles that matched the ones on the faces of the students who, although they found lugging heavy pails up the hill hard, did not breathe a words of complaint.
“Here’s what I like about this event – it brought the community together for a great event and a great cause,” said Cooper. “Here’s what I like the most – the impact it has on our kids and the respect they have for other people around the world.”
Cooper says the kids “get it,” are grateful for what they have and thankful they have an education.
“We don’t hear ‘school’s boring,’ they want to be here,” he adds, extending his pride to his teachers. “These kids are going to go forward and want to, and understand how to make a difference.”
With the inclusion of other schools, Grade 12 student Samantha Schumacher was able to participate this year.
A member of the Me to We committee, she went to Asemkow in Ghana during spring break 2012, a trip she describes as the most life-changing experience of her life.
“Africa was a lot different than I expected; people were happy and bubbly, despite their hardships,” she said, noting the trip inspired her and made her grateful for what she has. “It’s wonderful to be part of a change to help these kids have some of what we do.”
Schumacher helped build a third classroom for a village school and to lay the foundation for a new school.
Thrilled to see the walk grow so large in a single year, Dodds was enthusiastic and amazed, particularly about the students who moved from South Broadview to the Middle School and encouraged students there to participate.
“It’s pretty heartwarming that the kids realize they can do something, they do have power,” he said. “We were dead tired after the walk, so out of energy from organizing everything, but that leadership group from the high school came in and cleaned up.”
Equally enthusiastic was Shuert, who was thrilled to see the passion with which the students support the project.
And the third Grade 4/5 teacher and instigator of the walk, Smith wore a wide smile, despite the cold drizzle.
“It’s so encouraging to see the kids come out..,” he said. “As a teacher, I am proud of the kids and what they have accomplished.”
Amazed too, is Woodhurst, whose pride extends to the fact the students on the district’s Me to We committee decide where the funds from the Water Walk and the annual, district-wide Toonie Tuesday will go.”
“Some of it will go to Ghana and some of it will be going to local community projects,” she said, noting applications have to be in by Nov 15 and the committee will decide at a meeting in late November. “Over the last seven years, we have raised over $80,000. It’s amazing what has happened with the kids and it ties all the students together from Armstrong to the North Shuswap.