Chippewa students plead their case

Maggie Daniel, Rebecca Tumino, Jenny Stickle and Cori Toshacksecure big bucks for the Alzheimer Society of North Bay.

A select group of grade 10 students in both French and Civics classes at Chippewa Secondary School pleaded their case for charity Tuesday in front of a panel of judges.

The presentation was part of a study initiative started in 2002 called ‘Youth Philanthropy Initiative’ (YPI) sponsored by the Toscan Casale Foundation. The YPI students research grassroots charities in the community, and then present their findings to fellow classmates and instructor. Based on the points earned in class, the top groups moved on to the next round that would be scored by faculty and student representatives. The catch is that the top group from this round of public presentations secures a donation of $5,000 from the Toscan Casale Foundation for their charity.

Amanda Baine with the foundation says the program has 200 schools in Canada participating this year.

“There are 200 schools participating and if you do the math 200 times $5,000 means $1-million dollars will be given to out to charities by high school students.”

Baine says the student projects impressed everyone but in the end Maggie Daniel, Rebecca Tumino, Jenny Stickle and Cori Toshack, who delivered a dynamic bilingual presentation for the Alzheimer Society of North Bay, secured the $5000 purse for their charity.

“The judges said the girls were well organised and the presentation contained all of the information,” explains Bain.

“They felt like a unit up there versus four people speaking individually.”

The girls now head off to Toronto for a day of celebration with the other 200 schools and ‘Free the Children’ CEO’s Marc and Craig Kielburger.