Grade 3 Edmonton students create fundraising business, raise $5K for Ukraine

Grade 3 students in west Edmonton have blown away expectations with a new business venture fundraising for humanitarian relief in Ukraine.

Teacher Cindy Lam says the idea to sell pins with the colours of the Ukrainian flag along with sunflower seeds came from a single student at David Thomas King School.

“When she leaned about the crisis that was happening in Ukraine, she wanted to do something,” said Lam.

“This particular student took action in their learning and empowered everybody else to basically jump on board, and then today happened.”

Charlotte, a grade 3 student at David Thomas King, holds out a completed WSU package. (Credit: CityNews/Carly Robinson)

Monday, students from four separate Grade 3 classes worked together to put the final touches on their global citizenship initiative: a business they named WSU, which stands for “We Support Ukraine.”

Eight-year-old Charlotte, while putting blue and yellow beads on pins, said she hopes the initiative sends a message to Ukrainians in Canada and around the world.

“We want Ukraine to know that we will help them, and it will be done soon,” she said.

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Students got to choose which area of the business they wanted to work on: accounting, marketing, logistics or production.

“It feels fun to help them,” nine-year-old Pranav told CityNews as he crunched the numbers with the accounting team. “But also it’s quite sad, they got taken over by the Russia.”

Students learn accounting skills while raising money for humanitarian relief. (Credit: CityNews/Carly Robinson)

Teachers also made sure to highlight lessons around empathy and being a global citizen.

“We’re empowering them as well,” said Lam. “That they can make a difference in the world.”

By the end of day, WSU raised more than five times its initial goal. The accounting team calculated $5,295.80 to be donated to Humanitarian Coalition.

Two local companies, the Creative Hive and Kemba Designs, supported the students’ business with mentorship and supplies.