Category Archives: Education

Never Too Young for Charity

Education, , ,

banquet-tableEvery kid can get involved in charitable endeavors. Take 13 year old Julien Leitner. The philanthropist and founder of Archimedes Alliance, the non-profit organization that seeks to “encourage and promote philanthropy on the broadest possible scale,” believes that there are many ways for schoolchildren to help out and that doing so, is a very useful lesson. Leitner explained that engaging in this kind of activity “teaches compassion and empathy. It makes people more aware of the world. It teaches people to care for those less fortunate than themselves, and that knowledge and understanding stays with you your whole life. It’s what inspired me to start the Archimedes Alliance. I was conditioned for it. I was taught to be charitable from my family, and I finally decided I wanted to do something myself. I decided I wanted to change the world. Charity has changed my life, and made me want to change other peoples’ lives.”
Of course, along with parental support of charitable endeavors, the school system has to encourage children to give of themselves altruistically. One way of doing this is perhaps by letting them set up food for homeless people in the school cafeteria at the banquet tables. An important aspect of charity is to make the receiver feel welcome and important, not like some vagabond in the street. So if the school allows the children to really make a nice welcoming dinner and decorate the room beautifully, then this will be really taking the charitable idea to the next level.

School Kids Raise Money for Homeless Charity

Education, ,

homelessIn an effort to raise money for a homeless charity, 54 students from Our Lady of Perpetual Succour Academy spent the night in their school hall. Organized by Julie Abbott, the school home support worker, the “protest” sought to raise over £300 (approximately $500). But rather than just raise money, the idea behind The Big Snore was to raise awareness of the issue of homelessness.

Abbot explained: “the children slept in their home-made dwellings, made from paper, cardboard and waste materials and experienced how a homeless person might survive living under the stars. The children had a great time. They are already talking about doing it again next year.”

A food bank was set up for the children to make a donation to and a competition for the best shelter was set up. According to Pauline Lynch, head teacher, “lessons have been learned from the Big Snore initiative and the children realize that they are very lucky to have loving families and nice homes. Money is still coming in, in support of the Big Snore, and there is a likelihood that we might champion the cause of the charity again in the future.”
This has clearly been a great lesson for the children and something that would never have been learned in the traditional setting where they spend hours upon hours sitting at school desks.