Congratulations to Lord Byng Secondary and Strathcona Elementary on their successful fundraising initiative to support students at Strathcona Elementary! Byng students raised $8,000 to support learning resources for the Strathcona Elementary Indigenous Drumming Ensemble. 

The project was led by the 3-B Club at Byng and the school’s settlement worker, Janet Chung. 3-B is a club that helps new immigrant families, and they organized selling raffle tickets as a fundraiser. “It really shows what kind of club we are; we’re called 3-B meant for bridge, bond and build,” says the group.  

Chad Carpenter, the Indigenous Support Worker at Strathcona Elementary explains the relationship between the two school communities, “What we are doing is creating partner schools and cultural sharing celebration.” 

This is not the first project the club has done with the elementary school. “We've done many projects with Strathcona. This time we did a fundraiser to help support the purchase of a pow-wow drum and regalia,” the club explains. One member says, “It's just like we're a family, a community that works together, helps each other.” They continue, “This is really nice because we get to make friends from Strathcona and meet people there. We're supporting each other.” 

Another member adds, “Strathcona, they're our friends, [and] if your friends need some help or encounter some difficulties, then as close friends, we try to do our best to help them.” 

As part of secondary education, all students learn about the treatment of Indigenous Peoples in Canada. “They were treated badly by the Europeans in the past and even today where bad things are still happening.” For the 3-B students this partnership was a chance to be active participants in reconciliation, “We haven't got many chances to actually do our part in this meaningful process, this event gives me a meaningful opportunity to do so with our own abilities,” they explain. 

For Strathcona Elementary, this is an exciting chance to bridge and share their culture. “This is an opportunity for newcomer students and newcomer families to learn about the Indigenous people to this land and connect with the students from the local Indigenous population.” Chad Carpenter adds that through the partnership, the 3-B Club and the Byng community learn about more than the history of Indigenous people on this land, but also celebrate the culture, music and regalia. 

The fundraising took place quickly; the club started the planning in mid-May. They sold raffle tickets, did lunch sales, morning announcements and grew their public speaking and leadership skills by presenting in front of classes.  

Another creative approach was selling as teams rather than individually. They started working together, which created stronger bonds between club members as they helped and supported each other.  

The two partner schools were moved by the kindness and generosity of the community and its support for cultural preservation. The 3-B club shares, “By donating, it's not like you’re only donating money to our cause, but it's also a step forward for cultural preservation and learning about the cultures and traditions of different communities and regions.”  

At the announcement event for the fundraiser, Chad Carpenter says they have plans for a “big and beautiful pow-wow drum” as well as bringing in cultural teachers (Regalia Knowledge Keepers) so students have a hands-on learning opportunities to make regalia for the school. “This is a legacy opportunity,” he shares.  

Overall, the 3-B Club at Byng Secondary, their families and both schools are proud of the impact that will continue to grow from this partnership. “By doing this event, I think we really promoted the Indigenous community to our local neighborhood. Each donation [was] very small, only two dollars, but by our local community people [offering] their generosity by only giving out two dollars, [the] really small love combines together and makes big differences.” 

Pictured: Vianna Du, Sonia Hong, Nicole Zhang, Warren Ran and Katie Guo of the Byng 3-B Club