From Okotoks, With Love

Thanks to the Grade 1 and Grade 4-5 classes at Big Rock School in Okotoks, students in Huatulco, Mexico now have some brand-new sporting equipment.

The two classes paired up to collect and sell stuffed toys to raise money to send to the Mexican school, which previously had no such equipment.

Grade 1 teacher, Lyndsey Stoddard, says her students chose Huatulco because a volunteer and former teacher, Mary Donaldson, frequents that area.

"She has a place and she goes down there in the winter," she says. "So, she knew about these schools, and has some friends who work there. It's literally shacks with tin roofs and tarps and dirt floors, and they're lucky if they have a chalk board."

Stoddard says the stuffies were re-sold for $1 each, which proved to be a successful fundraiser.

"We raised, I think, about $250 as a group," she says. "So, we were able to send that money down, and they used the money to buy soccer balls and basketballs and stuff for the kids, because they don't have anything like that."

Shortly after the money was sent , the Big Rock students received pictures of the students in Mexico enjoying their new sports equipment.

Stoddard says seeing the pictures was great for her students, to further their understanding of how hard things can be in other countries.

"They don't understand that it's different," she says. "They have a hard enough time even understanding there's a difference between them and their classmates, let alone other places in the world. It was really good for them, a rare opportunity to actually see where the money went."

Stoddard says she plans on doing a similar fundraiser with her next Grade 1 class in the upcoming school year.