This Grade 7 class raised $1K for the local homeless population in Thompson. But their work isn't over

Students in a Grade 7 class in Thompson, Man., are wrapping up their school year on a positive note after raising more than $1,000 to benefit the local homeless community — but they say their work is far from over.

Angelique Larocque, a substitute teacher who has been with the English language arts class at Juniper Elementary School since the end of February, said she wanted her class to focus on a new topic of study following the March break, and the fundraiser grew out of the students' desire to help their community.

"The entire class voted for homelessness as a topic of interest. So as we started learning, our goal was to break stigmas down so that we realized that they're still humans. They had a lot of opinions that were not so friendly ... and we started learning more," Larocque said in an interview on Tuesday.

Thompson is home to roughly 13,000 people, and nearly 140 experience some level of homelessness, according to a 2022 report from the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness, a national research institute.

"We started from a position of humility and once the kids were able to relate to some of the issues, they started being interested in how they could change things," Larocque said.

The pre-teens, who are between 12 and 13, quite literally had to roll their sleeves up to earn the $1,000, which they used to buy products needed at the Canadian Mental Health Association's shelter in Thompson, Larocque said.

They answered a call to pick up trash behind the Thompson Recycling Centre and made their first $200 together as a team.

"We took our group out there and they worked very hard. They cleaned 41 bags of garbage in two hours, including a break, and they were really happy about the work they did and they felt good," Laroque said.

One of her more eager workers was 12-year-old Dannah Oluboye, who says that was her favourite part of the fundraising efforts.

"Even though it was really gross, we got a lot done and we felt really accomplished when we saw how much we have done and how we were really going to help the people at the healing centre," she said on Wednesday.

But the class still felt they had more to give.

They put on a bake sale shortly after and made $500 selling treats to fellow students and staff.

They earned the remaining $300 by putting a call out for donations to local businesses.

They were just over $900 when Larocque says she got a call with the final $100.

"At that time, I thanked them, I hung up, and the kids were dancing around the classroom because we had broken $1,000 in fundraising efforts," she said.

Making fundraising an annual tradition

Oluboye and her fellow classmates want to see the fundraiser for the mental health association's shelter become an annual tradition, even after they move on to Grade 8, and their substitute teacher moves onto other classrooms.

"I'm just really, really glad that we did this. It just feels awesome for what we've accomplished and what we've done, and it feels really good when you drive, and if you see people on the streets, you've known that you helped people and that you didn't just do nothing," she said.

Thirteen-year-old Jullian Bruderer echoed Oluboye's hopes.

"If they would, I would be so happy for them. It would be just nice for them to [recognize the] homeless," he said.

Bruderer said the class impacted his career dreams.

"What I really want to do when I grow up is help the homeless and build a website to help the homeless," he said.

His classmate Bethany Agecoutay, 12, has her sights set even bigger.