LDSS students helping raise funds for Ukraine

By Mark Ribble

A group of Leamington District Secondary School (LDSS) International Baccalaureate (IB) students are organizing events to help the people of Ukraine.

As part of the curriculum, the students decided that a fundraiser for Ukraine would be a perfect way to help, with the proceeds going to the International Red Cross.

Among the students helping Ukraine at LDSS are (left to right), Nico Belanger, Morgan Robinson (displaying her Ukrainian heritage) and Krystal Robinson.

Photos submitted

The conflict in Ukraine hits home for one of the students — Morgan Robinson, whose great-grandfather and other relatives were born in the Odessa area.

“It feels good to help the people of Ukraine,” said Morgan. “I’ve heard the stories from my family.”

Morgan enlisted the help of Nico Belanger, Ian McMahon and Krystal Robinson and the foursome got working on ways to help.

Their first event was a pizza day at LDSS where they sold slices of pizza at the school.

That was followed up by a ‘hat day’, where students were asked to give one dollar or a donation and were allowed to wear a hat at school that day.

“The pizza day and hat day both went very well,” said Ian.

According to Krystal, the group hopes to raise $2,000 for the cause.

“We’re about halfway there, having raised

$1,000 so far through hat day, a bake sale and several pizza days,” said Krystal.

Ian McMahon, left and Nico Belanger.

Nico says they chose the Red Cross because of the organization’s long-standing reputation for helping those in need.

“We talked about several options,” he said. “But we settled on the Red Cross.”

The group says that they also researched other charities that are helping the same cause and recommend to the community to donate, not just to the Red Cross but Help Us Help, Come Back Alive, Voices of Children and Razom for Ukraine.

Funds raised will be used by the Red Cross to provide humanitarian aid.

The group will be doing an online fundraising campaign and also participating in the upcoming Hoops for Heart, which should get them closer to their goal.

Members of the public can help by visiting the school’s Facebook and Instagram accounts to learn more about how and where to make a donation to their cause.