The Christmas spirit of giving was alive and well on Monday at Confederation College.
Students and staff presented the United Way of Thunder Bay with a cheque for $41,061, money that will also be used for Stock the Bank, an internal campaign to line the shelves of the school’s food bank.
Mark Wright, Confederation College’s executive director of resource development and government relations, said it’s their way of giving back.
“One of the great things about working at the college and being at the college is it’s an extremely giving community, not only in time, but as you can see today, also in dollars,” Wright said.
“We are, at the end of the day, a community college. We are very integrated within the community, we all live within the community, and it’s supported within the college about giving back and getting involved in the community. It’s part of our every day thing that we truly enjoy doing.”
Jered Zieroth, the assistant director at the United Way, said the donation will go a long way to helping them meet their $2.6-million campaign goal.
He added they’ve had a longstanding partnership with Confederation College, and Monday’s donation shows it’s alive and well.
“Every year the faculty makes a huge difference and a huge dent in that $2.6 million goal that we have. So we’re very appreciative of the dollars that they’ve given today to help support us.”
The impact is huge, he said.
“These dollars raised will help one-in-three in our community. And the problem with that figure is when we say it, the one-in-three people don’t necessarily self-identify themselves and say, ‘I’ve used a food bank,’ or ‘I was going through a difficult time and used counseling services,” Zieroth said.
“But they’re your friends and your family, they’re your neighbours, they're the people that are all around you. And these dollars will help support the 67 programs and 28 agencies that help those people within our community.”
Students and staff also helped collect 3,408 items of food, many of which were stuffed into a sleigh at the student common, a friendly competition between departments that fuelled the success in the campaign’s seventh year.
“Every year the staff at the college rise to the occasion to help some of our students who struggle with access to healthy food,” said Katie Aprin, president of the Student Union of Confederation College Inc.
