Even as Chloe Bard and Sophia Armstrong prepare to graduate, the co-presidents of Orillia Secondary School’s Students for Change club are still hard at work running a hygiene drive.
It’s this enthusiasm and commitment that helped the pair lead the Students for Change group through a successful year of volunteering, fundraising and social issue advocacy.
Simultaneous food and toy drives during the holiday season, virtual meetings with seniors at the Atrium Retirement Residence and a Water Walk to raise money for Indigenous communities are just some of the impactful events the group ran this year.
“They go above and beyond when it comes to making our community a better place,” says Chris Peacock, executive director of The Sharing Place Food Centre, who met Bard and Armstrong when they dropped off more than 1,000 pounds of food gathered in their December food drive.
Peacock says the pair did their homework, asking in advance what donations the food bank was most in need of. A donation of this size would have been difficult to collect during the pandemic, says Peacock — a true testament to their leadership within the group, and the school at large.
Both girls began volunteering at an early age through sports — Bard with her dad at the Orillia and District Soccer Club, and Armstrong with the Orillia Lady Kings lacrosse program.
In high school the two got involved in various clubs, including Me to We, which later became Students for Change. Armstrong joined in Grade 10, and Bard a year later in Grade 11.
One of the Orillia Secondary School teachers who runs Students for Change, Jennifer Grace, noted the success of fundraisers and drives that were headed by Bard and Armstrong. Seeing their strong leadership toward the end of their Grade 11 year, the pair were named co-presidents for the following school year.
After the WE Charity scandal of last summer, the school could no longer be associated with the organization, leaving the fate of the student group in limbo. At the same time, the pandemic posed challenges to the group’s usual fundraising events.
Armstrong and Bard got to work, however, and began rebranding the student group. They pitched new names and project ideas, and helped run weekly meetings over Zoom. The group emerged in late September as Students for Change —- a group of students “motivated to create positive change within (the) community,” according to their Instagram.
“It was a very easy transition to the new club. (Armstrong and Bard) are definitely creative and problem solvers,” says Grace.
The team continued some older traditions like their Water Walk, and donated their proceeds to Water First rather than WE Charity this year. They also took the new group formation as a chance to run new initiatives, like their Zoom calls with seniors.
Since becoming Students for Change, Bard says they’ve harnessed the power of social media to educate fellow students on a host of social issues. Biographies of civil rights activists and Meatless Monday recipes are a few of the areas they’ve posted about on Instagram.
Armstrong and Bard have received praise from their principal and teachers around the school who commend their ability to get students motivated in all their community-based projects.
“Our club, other than students’ council, was probably one of the only ones that was able to continue running, and there were no sports,” says Bard. “A lot of kids that wouldn’t have normally joined our club decided to join and try something new, so I think that was a special experience for everyone.”
The group of committed members began to look forward to their weekly Students for Change Zoom meetings on Wednesdays.
“(Students for Change) is very student driven. We get a lot of our ideas through brainstorming done by (all members),” says Armstrong.
Post-graduation, both of the co-presidents intend to continue their volunteer work in university. Armstrong is headed for the University of Waterloo in September, and hopes to someday work doing activism or advocacy. And while Bard isn’t sure where exactly community-oriented work will fit into her future, she’s sure she’ll find it in Toronto when she attends Ryerson University in the fall.
As for Students for Change, Armstrong and Bard will hand the reins over to Peyton Nye and Max Odlozinski — two current members of Students for Change who have been quite involved in the group.
The hygiene drive concluded June 28. All items that were placed in the bins at Orillia Secondary School’s front doors will be kept on-hand at the school and given out to any students in need next year.
For more information about Students for Change, visit their Instagram or Twitter pages.