Students among those lending hand in Cumberland
High school students volunteer for flood relief
When the call went out on Friday for volunteers to help with flood relief efforts, 60 students from Cairine Wilson Secondary School signed up to pitch in on the front lines.
By Monday morning, a line of students was passing sandbags along a human chain outside the Cumberland Museum, while others loaded the bags into a top loader to be delivered to soldiers along the Ottawa River.
"A lot of my friends and their family's houses are flooding and it just it's really great to know that you're making a difference," student Isabelle St. Denis said.
More than 8,500 volunteers and 600 Canadian Armed Forces members have filled more than one million sandbags this spring, according to statistics provided by the City of Ottawa on Monday. By comparison, in 2017, 230,000 sandbags were deployed in flood-affected areas.
A lesson in community spirit
Many of the students said they were motivated by devastating images of flooding they'd seen on television, or hearing about the plight of neighbours and relatives.
"We can make a difference," Grade 11 student Julia Carter said. "But you never really get to feel that feeling until you're actually doing something like this."
One of the volunteers was Lara Mellin, a Grade 10 exchange student from Germany who arrived in Ottawa three months ago. Mellin said she has never witnessed flooding on this scale and was inspired by the way the community came together.
"It's a great feeling... all the people are helping to help Canada and Ottawa. I really like that feeling," Mellin said.
Principal Jennifer Coleman said not only were the students getting a lesson in community spirit, they are learning first hand about the consequences of a changing climate.
"Our bigger job as educators is to bring our students out and teach them that life is so much bigger than what happens in the four walls of school," Coleman said.
A lesson that Julia Carter says has certainly opened her eyes.
"It's easier to see it than to learn about," said Carter. "Seeing this and seeing how many sandbags there are, it's really kind of hitting me, like wow, this is a big issue."