Kaelyn McCallum is an Agent of Change for the Toonies for Tummies campaign. There is no stopping her and her classmates from St. Ignatius High School in Thunder Bay, from aiming high when it comes to supporting student nutrition.
If you listen to Kaelyn, she'll tell you about how she was unaware of the need in her own community and how she learned through her involvement as an Agent of Change about how many students are going without proper nutrition. She speaks very humbly about her involvement, but there's little doubt, it's big, really big.
With the support of her principal and fellow students, Kaelyn set out to raise $1,500 to benefit local student nutrition programs in the Thunder Bay region.
An athlete, Kaelyn was eager to get her idea of a basketball fundraiser off the ground that would support local student nutrition programs in the community, including one at her school.
During the Toonies for Tummies campaign, Kaelyn and her classmates, hosted and participated in a three-day basketball tournament designed to raise funds and to bring the Toonies for Tummies campaign to life at the school. An estimated 80 students from the school took part bringing the concept of active involvement in the cause to a new level. The entire school is also slated to take part in a dress down day which will see Toonies donated in exchange for a day out of uniform.
In addition to what's going on at her local school, Kaelyn's been talking to the local media to help build awareness around the impact of these programs: on grades and graduation rates.
It seems that her desire to rally the students of Thunder Bay is infectious. Similar inspiration has been found in local grocery stores participating in the campaign who have been eager to support her and the local student nutrition programs. At one participating Metro store donations are up, way up! While the tally of total funds raised during the campaign which began Feb 9 and ended Feb 23 is still underway, this one store was reporting over 4 times the donations from last year.
Kaelyn is one of 11 student Ambassadors supporting the Toonies for Tummies campaign. Right now 1.2 million students in the province are benefitting from these programs each day.
Kaelyn, her fellow students, school staff, and student nutrition partners, all have played a critical role toward helping ensure students in the community not only have the proper nutrition they need to shoot for the hoops, but to also perform at their best when it comes to school work. This teamwork and result is a perfect alley-oop if we've ever seen one.
