CCSTA Saskatchewan Trustee Mike St. Amand has put his own Toonies for Tuition challenge to practice.
He recently issued a Lenten challenge to his own school board, the Prince Albert Roman Catholic School Division, asking that each student donate $2 for Toonies for Tuition. With 3,000 students enrolled in the school board, this would put the tally at $6,000.
“I think we’ll go beyond that goal,” said Mike, who hopes this initiative will bring their province closer to earning the Toonies Trophy.
Last fall, Mike, along with fellow trustee Bert Provost, created the Toonies for Tuition Trophy Challenge.
As the CCSTA Director for Saskatchewan, Mike understands the importance of ensuring students have access to Catholic education.
The Toonies for Tuition initiative provides an endowment fund for families to afford the tuition costs in non-government-funded provinces.
To ignite excitement for this annual fundraiser, Mike and Bert purchased two trophies and officially issued a challenge to the three fully-funded provinces in Canada – raise the most money, and earn bragging rights.
“We have a duty as Catholics to help fellow Catholics in this country,” he says. “We can say we are all in this together.”
There is one trophy that will be awarded to the School division per capita that raises the most money and the second trophy will be presented to the Province per capita that raises the most money. This contest is open to the fully funded provinces which includes Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan.
“With approximately 700,000 students between our three provinces we should be able to raise $1.4 million if we ask for one toonie per student,” he says. “Think what message this would send across our country to our fellow Catholics.”
The fundraiser launched in October, and they will wrap up this official challenge on May 31, 2011. The winners will be announced at the CCSTA’s annual general meeting in Regina, Saskatchewan. But, as Mike explains it, the real winners are the endowment fund recipients.
“Competition brings the best out of people, and we will do it in a respective way,” he says. “Our ultimate goal is to see this toonies endowment fund reach a high level.”
Categories:
Leave a comment