Described as “the little club that can” by The Push for Change Foundation, Isfeld Secondary’s Interact Club recently won the foundation’s 2022 Promise Project. The award comes with a $5,000 donation to the club’s charity of choice — The John Howard Society of North Island - Foundry Comox Valley. This is a new youth services centre, where young people 12-24 and their families can access primary care, mental health and substance use counselling, and social services such as job search and lifeskills supports.
The foundation is committed to funding projects that engage Canadians to support youth homelessness prevention. The campaign began in 1989 when co-founder Joe Roberts was a youth living on the streets of Vancouver. Destitute and homeless, pushing a shopping cart, he vowed that if he ever got off the streets he would do something to pay it forward. The Push for Change was that promise realized. In 2016, Roberts completed a 17-month, 9,064 km walk across Canada, pushing a shopping cart as a symbol of homelessness. He was supported by campaign director Marie Roberts, sponsors and friends.
Last fall, Roberts gave a presentation at Isfeld about the Promise Project, which aims to engage and empower youth to create a service-based learning project that helps solve critical issues that put youth at risk in their school or community. Inspired by the presentation, the Interact students collaborated on the Shoebox Campaign Promise Project — which promises to continue the Interact Club’s tradition of donating shoeboxes filled with toiletries, food items and warm accessories to youth in need each December via The John Howard Society of North Island. Community members, staff and students contribute items including bus passes and cash donations from Comox Rotary. After countless hours of preparation, the youth submitted a video and portfolio to foundation in May.
“The Isfeld Interact Club students clearly worked together, and demonstrated a creative engagement strategy while building and executing their project,” foundation directors Marie and Joe Roberts said. “Providing youth in need with a shoebox of ‘cheer’ is indeed an empathic and charitable service that provides youth hope and, partnered with The John Howard Society of North Island, it offers them a possibility of a greater future.”
Isfeld Interact also fundraised and donated $1,000 to Foundry Comox Valley in the fall. The earlier donation and the $5,000 will be matched by an anonymous donor to Foundry.
“Thanks to these donations, we were thrilled to learn that Foundry Comox Valley now has only $13,000 left to raise in its $100,000 matching campaign,” said Comox Rotary youth director, Tina Doty.
“We are impressed by the time and energy our students put into the Promise Project,” said Victoria Mulrooney, Interact Club teacher sponsor. “This year, we gave out a total of 82 shoeboxes and included a handwritten note to express that somebody does care. We could not do this without our generous community sponsors.”
Future shoebox donations will be gladly received by the Isfeld Interact Club.
FMI: www.foundrybc.ca/comoxvalley and www.thepushforchange.com