W.P. Wagner High School student Ashley Goldsack is putting her sewing skills to use.
The 15-year-old member of the Stollery Club is one of 20 students modifying sleepers for newborns at the Stollery Children’s Hospital who require hookups to IV and monitors and can’t wear regular pull-on sleepers.
Grade 10 student Ashley Goldsack holds up one of the sleepers she modified for young patients at the Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton. (Rick Bremness)
Other clubs at the school organize blood donor drives or collect food and clothing for families in need.
“These are our neighbours,” said teacher David Tran, department head of student leadership at Wagner. “These are families in our area.”
Tran believes social responsibility, empathy and paying it forward can and should be taught.
“One of the things we teach here is ‘many hands make light work’,” Tran said.
Giving at W.P. Wagner High School0:55
About 1,500 students attend the high school at 6310 Wagner Road in southeast Edmonton.
“Last year we raised $93,000 for the Child, Adolescent and Family Mental Health Foundation,” Tran said.
The year before that students raised more than $50,000 to provide full-day kindergarten for students in need.
David Tran works as the head of the department of student leadership at W.P. Wagner High School in Edmonton. (Rick Bremness)
Wagner principal Jennifer Allen admits they’re billed as a science and technology school.
“But we’re particularly proud of the student leadership focus where students work together to give back to the community,” said Allen.
She believes giving is what really gets the kids excited.
“As much as the students loved doing things for themselves and for school spirit, I think they get even more passionate about doing things for others.”
You can see more from W.P. Wagner High School on this week’s Our Edmonton Saturday at 9 a.m., Sunday at 3 p.m. and Monday at 11 a.m. on CBC TV.
Inside W.P.Wagner High School1:14