School Name

• WEST VAN PARKS NEEDS YOUR HELP
  
  Want to help our environment while getting outside and meeting great people? Become a West Van Park Steward by joining other passionate volunteers to remove invasive species, enhance habitat and restore natural areas. You can find out about upcoming park stewardship events and many other exciting volunteer opportunities in West Vancouver.
  
  As a volunteer, you will:
  • love your local parks and want to protect habitats and biodiversity for future generations to enjoy
  • are comfortable working outdoors, off the trail and on uneven ground in all kinds of weather
  • can be on your feet for a long period of time and are able to take part in gentle to moderate physical work
  • are 14 years of age or older

To become a volunteer, contact Volunteer Services at 604-925-2703 or volunteer@westvancouver.ca

• West Vancouver Memorial Library

  A variety of opportunities are available to students in Grades 8 to 12; shelver, Teen Advising group member, special events volunteer.  If you’re interested in volunteering at the West Van library, please email rhinmueller@westvanlibrary.ca
   

• District of North Vancouver – Volunteer in a park

  Volunteers are needed to help care for and maintain trails, greenbelts, creeks, and neighbourhood parks.  As a volunteer, you can assist with ecological restoration, plant rescue, invasive species removal, trail building, and litter clean-up.

  If you’re interested in volunteering, please email the Trail and Habitat Coordinator at taylorgw@dnv.org

• Vancouver Food Runners
  Vancouver Food Runners partners with food retailers, nonprofit organizations, and volunteer food runners to bring food directly to those experiencing food insecurity.  If you can spare some time to deliver food to much-needed organizations, this is a great opportunity for families to engage in service together.

  To learn more or volunteer visit: https://www.vancouverfoodrunners.com/volunteer
   

• Help Our Heroes
  Help Our Heroes is a free service to find volunteers to deliver groceries, run errands and take care of urgent demands of Front Line medical staff, essential workers and others who are vulnerable who cannot take care of their needs.
  
  If you want to show your appreciation for these members of our community and have an extra 1-2 hours/week to do a delivery PLEASE VOLUNTEER using this link.  https://www.helpourheroes.ca/volunteer
   

• Write for AdVerum
  theadverum.com
  Students, share your stories during this time of online learning. We want to hear about different initiatives, projects and experiences regarding your thoughts, insights and responses to the pandemic.
  
  Submit images, video footage, photos, or written stories to adverum@mycw.org.
  
  Any ideas/leads people might have for stories, articles, etc. that they can suggest for us to write or report on will be accepted as well.
  
  We will create and curate these as best as we see fit in our site and give credit to people who send us these stories (or even if they are just ideas/leads). 
  
  We will have sections like: recipes for cooking during the quarantine, heroes from our community, deep thoughts (opinion pieces and think pieces on relevant and current events or ideas), creative writing, updates on school events/activities, SGN (video episode that recaps and shares stories collected from the community and the adverum staff of good news within our community) 
   

• Hank’s Christmas Glitter
  Hank’s Christmas Glitter is a non-profit on the North Shore. Hank will personally pick up your recycling and turn it into gift cards for the homeless and hungry.

  Visit here for more information and to schedule a contactless pick-up.
   

• Senior Centres
  The West Van Seniors Centre is looking for a donation of Ipads or tablets to support at risk seniors.  All donations can be dropped to the West Vancouver Seniors Centre daily between 10am to 2pm. 
   
• West Van BCSPCA
  The West Van BCSPCA is collecting donations of dry and wet cat food to help folks in our community who cannot afford food for their pets during this difficult time.
  
  Donations can be dropped off between 8:00am-5:00pm in the bin at the front door.

• Grad Class of 2021 Legacy Project
  This year's grad class has a year like no other. Change has come and will continue coming in many different ways. This is why, as a class, we felt that this year more than ever, that there are two issues that are incredibly prominent and important to us. It seemed clear to us that supporting people of colour and helping our community that was greatly affected by COVID 19 are causes we are passionate about and are very relevant to our year and the changes coming with it. This year, we decided to pair with United Way by supporting three different causes.  
  1. The Umoja Society is one of the causes we chose to back this year. The Umoja Society runs out of Surrey and supports immigrant children in an after school program called “School’s Out.” The program allows children who have come from traumatic experiences or are having a hard time adjusting to new life to open up through art and activities and make connections.
  2. The second cause we chose to support is Youth Mental Health for Newcomers and Refugees During COVID 19, also run out of Surrey. COVID 19 has taken an especially difficult toll on immigrant children and teens. The resources they depended on, such as community centres to allow them to learn English and make connections have been shut down. United Way works with 73 agencies to help combat the isolation these children and teens feel.
  3. The final cause we’ve decided to support is a food hub in the Downtown Eastside which provides specifically for sex workers and indigenous peoples. United Way delivers free meals to them as well as providing them with resources for housing, and COVID safety education. The food hub also pairs with two indigenous owned organizations (WISH, and Cedar Feast) to help support meal making elsewhere.

Combining support of youth, COVID 19 impacts, and people of colour allows every one of our grad class members to feel that they can choose an organization they feel passionate about. We hope to be able to get out and volunteer with these organizations as often as possible, but of course, restrictions due to COVID 19, will limit us in some ways. Regardless, we are excited to fundraise and volunteer with these three important causes through United Way with the support of Morven and Wentworth this school year!

The 2020-2021 Grad Executive Team
 

• Our Legacy Project

  Obakki is excited to continue our partnership with Collingwood School. 
  
  Your support has impacted lives across the globe and this year we are hoping to make an even larger impact.
  
  To offer Collingwood families even more ways to support the drilling of a water well in Africa, we've opened up our entire inventory of artisan-made products. Each time someone purchases an item from the Obakki website using the promo code "COLLINGWOOD", the net proceeds from that sale will go directly toward drilling a clean water well. 
  
  We will keep you updated with quarterly progress updates to ensure that the entire Collingwood community can share in the joy that comes from selflessly helping others.
  
  Together we can do this, with your support we can change lives. 
  
  Thank you from Obakki.