Rotary students give warm gifts to locals in need

IT’S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS: Interact and Early Act students at Brooks and Henderson Elementary School painted individual bags to be filled with necessities and treats. Photo courtesy of the Rotary Club of Powell River

BY JOYCE CARLSON

Everybody Deserves A Smile (EDAS) is a service learning project started 20 years ago in Comox Valley by Rotarian and teacher Chantal Stefan to bring a smile to homeless people at Christmas.

Mac Fraser was president of the Cumberland club at the time, and he also served as president of Rotary Club of Powell River Sunrise after moving here.

Ally Boyd, who is Fraser’s niece, was Brooks Interact president in 2019 and introduced EDAS to the club as a community service project. Members were assisted by Henderson Elementary School EarlyAct club. Both programs are part of Rotary International. It has expanded to include the entire school and attracted many community volunteers.

Kindness packages contain woolen socks, toques, mittens, scarves, soap and four sugar cookies. Hand-decorated bags have a hand-decorated card with a personalized message.

While Ally has moved on to St. John’s Newfoundland’s Memorial University, the program has continued to thrive and grow. She attends organizing meetings via Zoom and two of her siblings remain involved. Their mother Kate, a Henderson teacher, is also involved.

“I am proud of what we do during our EDAS project each year,” said Calder Boyd, aged 12. “To me, EDAS is all about feeling good because when you help those in need, it makes them feel good and in return makes you feel good. That’s the best feeling. EDAS is our whole school working together to bring smiles to people in our community who need them.”

Younger sister Dru, aged 10, explained, “EDAS is about powerful feelings about sometimes difficult topics. When I see someone in our community with a bag or I get to hand a bag directly to a person, I feel it in my heart. I smile, they smile, and we connect. EDAS is about starting a conversation and really seeing what is going on around us in our community. EDAS is about knowing that we can make a difference today.”

Current Interact president Maddie Keil helped with the first local effort and will lead the current Interactors in helping this year.

Photo courtesy of the Rotary Club of Powell River

The evening Rotary Club continues to provide funding for EDAS, and other monies now come from qathet Regional District, City of Powell River and First Credit Union.

Doreen Fraser, Ally’s aunt, said that Powell River United Church originally had wanted to destigmatize conversations around homelessness and addictions, and support compassion towards all people.

“Mac and I said that we knew of a group that could take this on and with Ally that was the beginning of this project here.”

She said donations will be collected from November 14 to December 14 with bagging day on December 15. Also on November 14, there will be a EDAS launch at Max Cameron Theatre where it is hoped that Chantal will be able to attend.

Interact will be active with collection boxes at Brooks Secondary School and help to promote the program.

The first year EDAS filled 180 bags and this year there will be 400 distributed through nearly a dozen local agencies.

Brooks Culinary Arts program will bake 1,600 cookies.

There will be a community painting night during the first week of November with the date to be announced later and a separate one for the school district. Local artists, as well as students, are invited to paint bags.

“We always talk about seeing the smiles of those we help, but sometimes it is about more than that,” said Ally. “The warm fuzzy feeling inside each of us was not just holiday cheer, but the joy of volunteering. EDAS showed us how to say, “I see you” to all members of our community.”

For more information, send an email to fraser.doreen@gmail.com.