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www.insidehalton.com |OAKVILLE BEAVER | Friday, December 22, 2017 114 Every week we showcase youtns in our community SEND US YOUR NEWS: If you are a youth and you have a story or photo to share, we'll do our hest to publish it on this page. Email it to ahlackhurn@oakvilleheaver. com, along with your name and a brief paragraph about why you want to share it with our readers. St. Joan of Arc students helping peers in Venezuela T wo of my students have done tremendous work in regards to helping out their home country of Venezuela and only want to spread the word. They are not looking for recognition, but to bring a greater awareness to the issues happening in Venezuela. Below is a letter that my student wrote and a letter the other student wrote to LEGO asking for hnancial help. These are two amazing girls doing God' s work on Earth. -- Vince Monaco Principal | St. Joan of Arc y name is Maria-Luisa Gamez and I am a Grade 8 student at St Joan of Arc Catholic Elementary School. The rea son I am writing to you today is about a project we have in our school. Currently, Venezuela suffers from an ongoing crisis, growing political conflict, a critical scarcity of basic resources, cruel poverty and other finan cial and economic issues. This situation has left many children on the streets, suffering from hunger and without the possibility of having an education. Coming from Venezuela, my friend Isabella Colmenares and I came together to organize in our school, St. Joan of Arc, a project to help poor M Maria-Luisa Gamez and Isabella Colmenares Carrasquero are both Grade 8 students at St. Joan of Arc Catholic Elementary School in Oakville. They are spearheading a drive to help the less fortunate struggling in Venezuela. | submitted photo students of our country. We were truly blessed to have the support of all the staff from our school and specially of our Principal, Mr. Monaco. There are several organizations devoted to helping our country, but one that I am personally very close to is Mano Amiga (friendly hand). Mano Amiga is an Elementary and High School in Turgua, Venezuela which specializes in giving a good education to kids whose families suffer from economic struggles. It also feeds the stu dents so they won' t suffer from starvation. The Venezuelan crisis has affected Mano Amiga greatly making it hard for it to buy food and basic supplies, such as paper, crayons, pencils, backpacks and so on. Mano Amiga is a bless- ing to all of these students, who would have not been able to have a good education if it wasn' t for this wonderful school and we feel honoured to be able to help them. Since we did this project from a school to a school, we decided to brand our project ` Kids Helping Kids.' Our principal came up with the beautiful idea to decorate every classroom door during the month of November honouring Venezuela, and the dooro n which the students worked the most and best represented the country would win a pizza party donated by Mr. Monaco himself. In addition, on Nov. 23 we had a civvies day to raise funds to help Mano Amiga accomplish its mission of changing children' s lives by giving the chance to have a good education. We started working on the preparations from mid-September with the special help of our ESL teacher Ms. Fernandez. During the monthly school assembly, we explained the project to all the students and staff. It was a moving experi ence to see how supportive and motivated the St. Joan of Arc community is, it showed a kind and caring heart, an example of what a Catholic community really is. We are so thankful to have been part of this project that became not our project, but the project of the kind and generous community of St. Joan of Arc. Sincerely, Maria-Luisa Gamez Grade. 8, Oakville Ontario, Canada. see Helping on p.15 Shop early fo r best selection of pole system s, "squirrel-proof bird feed ers & raccoon baffles! H oliday H ours: Friday 10-6 Saturday 9:30-5:30 S unday 11-4 C lo se d M o n d a y & T u e sd a y C h ristm a s & B o xin g D ay ,V I [I riiivr- >Kv W ed, Thurs, Fri 10-6 Saturday 9:30-5:30 S unday 12-4 C lo se d M o n d a y N e w Y ears D ay Family size pizza 3 toppings 2 for $9.99 Cabbage Rolls $11.99 + tax Eat-in · Take-out · LLBO Licensed Open: Monday - Saturday 11am - 8pm SHOPPING DAYS LEFT TO CHRiSTMASII! $2.99 each 134 Speers Rd., Oakville 905.844.4711 L a k e sh o r eR d 3 3 5 0 F A IR V IE W S T R E E T , B U R L IN G T O N 9 0 5 - 6 3 4 - 7 7 0 0 · E M A I L : w b u 1 @ b e lln e t.c a W E B R IN G P E O P L E & N A T U R E T O G E T H E R