Teaching our Children Philanthropy

Guest blogger - Karine Aviv

Last week I had the pleasure of volunteering in my daughter's grade 5 class at Nellie McClung Elementary School in Calgary, for a fundraiser for the Conquer Cancer Foundation.  It was very touching to see all the kids in her classroom so excited about the event, and to see the rest of the school participate.

My daughter's class has been studying, throughout the year, about leaving a legacy, doing good deeds and paying it forward.  Their teacher gave them the task of thinking of 10 good deeds to do and the first one they decided upon was a hot chocolate sale at the school for the entire school, with funds going to a chosen charitable organization.

After some discussion with their classmates about which organization to donate funds to, the kids decided to work towards an organization that one of the school's teachers is strongly involved in. The Conquer Cancer Foundation.

They were busy with the planning stages of the event for 2 full weeks (which for a 10 year old is a lot), preparing signs to post up on all the school walls, speaking to the parents to make sure they had enough adult volunteers, coordinating with the school administration to make sure notes were sent to all the school children's parents announcing the event, etc.

A full week prior to the event, I started to receive e-mails requesting that my children be ready with a dollar and a mug (keeping it green), for the day of the fundraiser.  During the fundraiser a group of parents including myself, went in to prepare the hot chocolate.  Once prepared, it was great to see the classrooms come in one at a time, with the children in orderly line-ups, each child holding a mug s/he brought from home, pay the Loonie, and receive the hot chocolate. 

The fundraiser was a huge success with $508.55 raised.

Teaching our children the basics of philanthropy can be easy and fun.  It is a wonderful sight to see young minds so excited when they realize that with a little effort, they can make a difference in their communities.  I believe that children that are brought up with philanthropy as part of their daily life will take it into their adulthood and continue that practice, because once they realize that it "feels good to do good", they won't have any reason to stop.

Bio: Karine is the marketing manager at Dexterity Consulting. She previously worked at Hitachi-ID (previously M-Tech Information Technology) as the Director of Marketing. Her education background is a BA in Psychology and an MBA in Information Systems. She lives with her husband and three daughters in Calgary.