A Walpole Island student wanted everyone in his community to have a great Christmas, so he stepped up and took the initiative to ensure this became a reality.
Noodin Miskokomon, a Grade 8 student at Bkejwanong Kinomaagewgamig, started a food drive earlier this month at the Walpole Island school and ended up collecting 1,547 food items for the Social Services food bank.
“This Christmas I wanted everybody to have a great Christmas, but I wondered how,” he said.
“I thought (a food drive) was a pretty neat idea. It has been a great success. That’s a lot of food, it would feed many families. This idea was mainly because I wanted people to have a Merry Christmas.”
Noodin said his previous school did a food drive and he thought it would be an excellent idea to launch one at his new school on Walpole Island.
“I’ve been at this school for about two years,” he said.
“Throughout those two years they didn’t have any special thing around Christmas, but I decided if my school had a canned food drive, I think I should start my own at this school.
Noodin said his classmates were a bit skeptical at first with the idea, but ended up coming around and making the food drive a success.
“They all came through with it,” he said.
“I am very surprised, I didn’t think we would collect this many goods. It feels really great. You just feel good when you know you’re helping somebody or the entire community together. You get the feeling of congratulating yourself for that achievement. I felt really great when this started and how many goods we’ve brought together as a school.”
Noodin credited Jennifer Provost, the school counselor on Walpole Island, for helping him organize the drive.
“It is so typical of Noodin. He puts their needs above his own and always has,” Jennifer said.
“I think that is why it has been such a success, because every classroom we go in to collect the cans, because Noodin and I have went around and got them from every room… they all love him and think the world of him, and I think that has been the driving force for it. He’s got a really big heart.”
Jennifer said each classroom had a competition to see who could bring in the most cans, with the winner getting to watch a movie with popcorn in the gymnasium.
– Photo credit: Aaron Hall
