Crestwood School takes fundraising to new heights
By Trevor Robb
EDMONTON — Mr. Bell is going to jump out of a plane.
Brennan Bell is a first grade teacher at Crestwood Junior High and Elementary, where the students have been raising funds so Mr. Bell can ‘skydive for Africa’, in an effort to help build a new library in Uganda.
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- Brennan Bell, a first grade teacher at Crestwood Junior High and Elementary poses beside a thermometer keeping track of the students fund raising progress. Photograph by Trevor Robb.
“I’m excited to be honest, I think that could change closer towards the end of the day, I could be a little bit nervous,” laughed Bell. “In my head the height of this plane going up is just a number, but when I’m actually in the air I think I might have a different opinion of what the height actually is but I’m looking forward to it.”
Back in March, a U of A student teacher approached Bell to take part in the ‘skydive for Africa’ campaign through the Ainembabazi Children’s Project.
“She was across the hall from me and asked me if I wanted to do it, and I said I’ve been wanting to do it for a long time but couldn’t afford it,” said Bell. “I’ve been at the school for a few years so the kids know me and they’re pretty excited about it.”
It costs $800 for a person to go skydiving, so to raise the funds the students at Crestwood held hot dog lunches, bake sales, made chains and filled jars with jelly beans. In the end, it took just two weeks for the students to raise a total of $1,542.36.
“Eight hundred dollars is a lot, so for them to go above and beyond, my goodness, as a teacher this is why I was willing to do it, because it’s for a great cause, it’s for the kids, and really what else can you say?” said Bell.
Pictures from Uganda
The students started raising money in the last week of March and reached over $1,500 by the end of the first week of April. A correspondent from the Ainembabazi Children’s Project visited the school to collect the funds raised.
But the students had one more thing to give. Grade 3 students drew pictures and sent letters as a gift to students in Kitwe, Uganda.
After the letters were sent and the money was raised, the students were understandably excited, but the actual skydive jump was still almost two months away. To keep the level of excitement high, another Ainembabazi correspondent, this time from Kitwe, began sending videos online to Crestwood.
“For the past seven weeks she has taken us on our tour of the school, where the money went and introduced us to the kids and the head teacher,” said Bell. “So for the past seven weeks we actually got to see where the money went.”
Crestwood/Kitwe Partnership Video 6: Making Art at Kitwe from Renee Vaugeois on Vimeo.
A gift from Uganda
On Tuesday, June 21, the correspondent from Ainembabazi visited Crestwood once again, only this time she came bearing pictures and letters from the students in Kitwe.
The project had come full circle and Bell couldn’t be more proud of his students.
“We are a very generous school, if it’s not things like the ‘Terry Fox’ run or ‘Movember’ – prostate cancer in November – these kids band together,” said Bell. “We try to teach them that we are a pretty well-off society and there are others who aren’t, doesn’t mean they’re unhappy, we just should be very thankful for what we have.”
The Jump
The jump is scheduled for Thursday at roughly 6 p.m. at the Eden North Parachute Club. Next week, the West Edmonton Local will follow-up with Bell and find out how his exhilarating jump went. Stay tuned…