Recently Dover Bay Physical Education students raised $750 for charity and chose to donate it to the Hidden Heroes Education Society to support the development of new Hidden Heroes programs for other students.

As regular readers of this column know, the Board of Directors of the Hidden Heroes Education Society and I have been working slowly but persistently over the past several years to develop and promote a series of lesson plans and teacher support materials for a variety of Grade levels. Our vision is to see the project grow not only across the province but also around the world through Rotary International and other contacts.

Over the past year we have developed a partnership with School District 68 and the Education Department at Malaspina U-C. Now in order to see our project grow to its full potential our board has decided to launch a corporate fundraising campaign to raise the money needed to see that happen.

To our surprise and delight, the first financial commitment came from Nancy Stigings PE students at Dover Bay Secondary.

When Lauren Wilson heard that they were the first group to sponsor the project, she was surprised but "really, really happy." She added that she hopes other potential corporate sponsors realize that it is a good program to invest in; project teenagers believe in.

The students considered supporting six different causes and eventually chose our Hidden Heroes Education Project.

Holly Keen explained, "We chose to give our money to the Hidden Heroes Project because we thought it was important to donate to something that dealt with kids. It relates to us and it's so easy to do.”

Thui Bui said she likes the project because she can see her class being motivated to do more small, positive things that would make a big difference in the entire school.

Teesha Wilkinson agreed. She said that her class has a lot of leaders in it already and that they could use the Hidden Heroes concepts to draw potential leadership skills out of other students in the school.

Like her students PE teacher, Nancy Stigings, likes the project for a number of different reasons. She said even though her students have just had an introduction to it, it has helped students realize that they have the power to make a big difference around them simply by doing small, positive things themselves and noticing and acknowledging others who are doing the same.

“It's been a wonderful program to be involved in,” she continued, “and the really neat thing was how everyone in the school came together to raise funds for the project. The teachers were particularly supportive.”

The Hidden Heroes Education Society board members are excited to see proof that students recognize the value of the project both to them and to their peers. They hope that potential corporate sponsors will choose to follow their lead and make whatever donation they can.

The funds raised will be used to develop more lesson plans and support packages for teachers in different grade levels.These packages will include professional lesson plans developed by qualified and experienced teachers along with fifth year education students from Malaspina's Education Department under the supervision of Dr. Neil Smith. They will also include over 100 of our Neighbourhood Heroes columns, making this paper an in-kind sponsor, and 50 or so Hidden Heroes videos produced at Shaw TV, another in-kind sponsor. Imotech has also become an in-kind sponsor. They are building and hosting our new Hidden Heroes web site, which we hope to have up and running by early summer.

The first service club to lend support was the Oceanside Rotary Club. The Hidden Heroes web site will promote youth opportunities through Rotary.

If you or your company would like a Hidden Heroes information package, you can get one by contacting info@hiddenheroes.ca or by phoning 741-7499.