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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Friday, January 30, 2015 | 10 Palermo students bake up plans for change by Nathan Howes Special to the Beaver Oakville's Palermo Public School students spent an afternoon at Longo's Lofts recently, cooking up tasty treats as well as plans for fundraisers to help communities overseas. On Thursday, Jan. 15, 24 Palermo students participated in a baking class and bake sale lesson at Longo's Wyecroft Road location to support Free the Children (FTC) and Robin Hood's upcoming We Bake for Change campaign. The Longo's-led baking seminar provided tips for preparation, storage and transportation and bake sale recipe ideas, while a FTC representative discussed what We Bake for Change is supporting, how to sign up and how to organize a successful bake sale. "We partnered with Free the Children because a lot of their youths are already doing bake sales in schools as fundraisers. We want kids to know how to bake. Baking is about creating memories, being creative and making great treats," said Sarah Palter, Robin Hood baking specialist. Students were taught to bake sweet treats, such as chocolate chip pretzel cookies, sprinkled sugar cookie shapes, chocolate and caramel banana surprises and chocolate chip blondies. Ilyse Hoffer, FTC manager of youth and Students from Palermo Public School participated in a baking session at the Longo's on Wyecroft Road, learning how to make a variety of treats leading up to their We Bake for Change school bake sale. Evelyn Tran uses a electric mixer to blend the ingredients of her team's sugar cookie mix as fellow team member Claire Kin holds the bowl. | photo by Graham Paine ­ Oakville Beaver (Follow on Twitter @halton_photog or facebook.com/HaltonPhotog) educational programming, said bake sales are one of the "go-to fundraisers" for schools. The formula for a successful bake sale, Skyway Jewellers L'ORIGNIAL DEPUIS 1898 An unrivalled purifying and fragrancing power! Destroys Destroys undesirable undesirable odours odours Di Diffuses ffuses a l long ong-lasting fragrance Pu Purifies rifies t the he ai air r according to Hoffer, includes portability of items, recipes that can be easily done by families and the "general understanding" that taking action on an issue youths are passionate about can lead to greater impact. "A lot of the students who are here for the lessons really have a passion for baking and if they can take that passion and make a positive impact, that's really the key takeaway," said Hoffer. Candice Parent, a Grade 5/6 teacher and Me to We club coordinator at Palermo, said the baking lessons were "very important" for the students because they learned how to make a difference in the world. "Me to We allows them to see what's happening with children their own age in other parts of the country and enables them to make differences. That's a very great lesson for a child to know, no matter how young or old or how big or small," said Parent. Over the last three years, Palermo and its Me to We club has raised $16,000 for FTC's Adopt a Village program. The funds went to building a school brickby-brick in India, providing clean water and sanitation and collecting slightly-used backpacks filled with school supplies for a local homeless shelter. "We do a lot of different things at Palermo because we have such a huge group of passionate kids who always want to do something. They see how people can partner up and work together to make differences. That's a really valuable lesson," said Parent. She noted the Me to We club started a few years ago with a group of 15 Grade 7 and 8 students and now has 60-70 members. Palermo's next annual bake sale will be held at its Fun Fair in June to raise money for FTC. "They just want to make sure that we get to bake and sell things because we're going to give this money to our global initiative. For them, that's the big idea. Longo's donated a $100 gift card so we could buy baked goods," said Parent. Malaya Mizal, a Grade 7 student and Me to We club member, said she enjoyed cooking "delicious food" with her group and classmates. "I love how baking can bring people together and we can have fun doing it and do whatever we want with our food. We can help people around the world, even in a little community with poverty, with food, water, sanitation and agriculture," said Mizal. Free the Children, an international charity and educational partner working to empower and enable youths, will run We Bake for Change in February. Schools across Canada will be participating in the bake sale initiative. "We at Free the Children are really passionate about bringing young people together to take action on the issues they care about. Bake sales are something that schools already do a lot," said Hoffer. "If we can step in with the support of Robin Hood to help bring the bake sale to the next level and set up students for success with these events, we can increase the impact in supporting families and communities overseas." For more information on We Bake for Change, visit www.freethechildren.com/getinvolved/campaigns/we-bake-for-change/ For recipes and baking tips, visit www. robinhood.ca. n ow o f f e r i n g P h ys i ot h e r a P y o s t eo Pat h y AS SEEN ON HGTV, DIY & W network at h l e t i c t h e r a P y The Lampe Berger technology guarantees an improvement of your indoor air quality. 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