Students at École secondaire Arthur-Pigeon have been working hard, preparing for two different trips to Central America. Teacher Lori Belair is on the organizing teams for both trips, the first of which will take place in Guatemala in January.
The trip to Guatemala is a humanitarian one that has been in the works for over a year. Eighteen students from Grade 8 to 11 will participate from January 2 to 11. Students will stay with a families while there. Belair explains, “Every day we will have a cultural experience, or will be doing community service [like] painting parks, painting schools, working in orphanages with young children.” The cultural experiences will include things like experiencing traditional food and dance, and visiting popular markets.
The following January, a group of Grade 8 and 9 students will be visiting Costa Rica as part of an environmental trip. Belair says, “We’ll be planting trees and working to save the turtles,” along with “climbing a volcano, understanding how to rainforest works, seeing how wildlife act in their habitat, and working with the locals and helping them clean up some of the waste that us humans leave behind on beautiful beaches in different communities.”
The fundraising for the Guatemala trip is finished; however, they will still happily accept donations to help with costs. With preparations for the Costa Rica trip just beginning, there is more fundraising to be done. Students are currently selling Elf on the Shelf packages, just in time for Christmas. These can be purchased until November 21, so they can be delivered by November 29.
Students are also working with the Genie in a Bottle project to raise money by collecting recyclables. Any student who has signed up for this Costa Rica trip has also agreed to do 15 hours of community service with the group as well. “We are really focusing on having our students work with the environment on a local basis, a provincial basis and international basis,” Belair says. They are collecting wine bottles, soda cans and bottles, tin cans, can tabs, and bread tags.
Trips like this cost a lot for the students but they offer life changing opportunities, and fundraising helps make it more possible.