On December 26, a tsunami hit many shorelines of Southeast Asia.  The devastation was massive.  As I walked into the school on the first school day in January, the usual greeting would normally have been, “Happy New Year!  How was your holiday?”  Instead, the first question to me was, “Is the Students’ Council going to do any fundraising for the Tsunami Relief effort?” 

To be perfectly honest, I did not know what to say.  We had had a barrage of fundraisers for various causes just before the winter break and I had not even said hello to a student never mind get their input on the idea.  I walked a few more steps into our staff room and logged on to check my e-mails.  The first three e-mails posed the same question, “What was Henry Wise Wood High School going to do for the Tsunami Relief effort?”

The same day, before lunch, Mr. Hettinga’s Social 20 class took action.  They decided to  spearhead the fundraiser.  And we all got to work.  Decisions were made regarding what cause to contribute to, how the money was going to be collected and how we could maximize our contributions and impact.  Challenges also came our way from other high schools and initiatives were forwarded from other schools that had personal connections in the affected areas.  In the end, the decision was made to support the Red Cross Tsunami Relief Effort due to it’s universal aid program.  It also helped that the Canadian government had also committed to match the donated funds.

The window of opportunity was small and the effort took 4 days.  In this short time, we collected $3200 from students.  This was matched, so our internal efforts netted $6400.00.  We collected in classrooms, at the school shop that was open each lunch hour, and we sent out letters to all the school’s families to join us in contributing to the Red Cross Tsunami Relief Fund.  The donations from individuals and companies associated with our school, that were contributed separately in order to get a tax receipt, are not recorded in our total but we are confident that our internal efforts of $6400.00 was matched several times over. 

 One little idea, a bit of classroom initiative, some cooperation and the result was the synergy of the tsunami – thanks for the time and effort Henry Wise Wood High School.