For the third straight year, W.H. Croxford High School gaming club students participated in a fundraiser event that raised over $8,000 through the ExtraLife Children’s Miracle Network, with all proceeds going to Alberta Children's Hospital.
Each student that participated had to raise a minimum of $100 in order to get to spend an all-nighter at the school where they got to play video and board games. Twenty-nine of the club’s members all raised the minimum, and the fundraiser in total raised around $8,400.
“It falls upon all our shoulders to help people,” said Duane Sovyn, the culinary arts teacher at Croxford who has helped to organize the club’s fundraiser for the past three years. “You can talk a big game and say that you want to help…,(but) teaching students to care about others is an easy step.”
Last year's fundraiser raised over $5,300, and was such a huge hit that the gaming club members approached Sovyn in September about doing it again.
“The first year we participated we had 14 students and eight teachers…,(but) this year 19 teachers asked me if they could help,” said Sovyn.
When asked how the students felt when they learned of the total they had raised for the ExtraLife Fundraiser, Sovyn said the reaction was immediate and easy to tell.
“Pride and contentment,” he said. “The students were ecstatic…when I talked about the total there were a lot of cheers. [The students] are happy to give back to a hospital that has been there for them over the years.”
Students raised money through pledges donated to them by family members and friends. Those students that didn’t quite reach the $100 threshold to attend the all-night gaming session were helped out by anonymous teachers, according to Sovyn.
Even though the gaming night has come and gone, the fundraiser is still open and will remain available for donations until the end of this year. Sovyn said that he’s already had a handful of graduates who have asked him how they can join them next year.
“[The fundraiser] has become part of the gaming club’s culture here,” said Sovyn.
Those wishing to donate can do so by looking up the Croxford Gaming Club team at www.extra-life.org.
