I tried to write today’s column on another topic because I have already written about the Rotary Interact Club, a new high school Rotary Club; however, what these kids have achieved over the past few months, and the Hidden Heroes that pitched in to help them, needs to be acknowledged again.

Last spring these students decided to organize a fundraising project in support of AIDS orphans at Sihlengeni High School in Zimbabwe. They called it the Your Move Campaign. Sarah Thompson and Dan Binng took leadership positions and each of the other original committee members did their share and more as they recruited additional students to help plan and execute the campaign.

As most regular readers probably know, the core of the fundraising project involved tee shirt sales. Although the final numbers aren’t in as yet, they raised in the vicinity of $4,000 net on this part of the project and there are still a few shirts left to be sold and cheques to come in.

The project climaxed last Saturday with the Your Move celebration at Harbourfront Plaza. This was a huge event that involved six live bands, hotdog and pop sales, a variety of fundraising games for children and adults (including a Fear Factor – thanks Malaspina students -- and Luscious Lips contest!) and a lot of prize giveaways, prizes the students solicited from various local businesses – What would we do without the support offered by our small businesses?.

Before I acknowledge the many Hidden Heroes who helped these students reach their goal, I need to say how moved I was at the end of Saturday’s event when I saw all of the key committee members on stage with arms linked and each taking the mike to acknowledge the others. It was a powerful image of what can be achieved when we work together and the reward we get when we do it.

Two of the biggest lessons the students learned were the importance of delegating tasks on a big project like this and how to network out to seek help from the community. The response from both the community and the kids who were delegated tasks was huge.

First Jerry Paquette’s Raincoast Studios donated the sound and Bill Lucas from the Blues Festival Society donated the stage and a huge tent. In all these donations were worth at least $1,500 to $2,000. At the end of the day both of them thanked us for allowing them to be involved – That my friends is what I call a Hidden Hero’s winning attitude.

Three corporate sponsors added to the success of the project when they each donated $250. They are Sonshine Girls Paining, Mid Island Coop and the L.A. Crossan Law Corporation. A $1,000 anonymous donation from an 85 year old reader of this column was a huge boost to the committee’s moral in the early stages of the project.

Enterprise Rent-A-Car’s donation of two free weekend car rentals was also a big hit along with Port Theatre tickets and a room night and breakfast at the Coast Bastion Inn. Thanks also to Sean Murphy who gave us a real break on a Bouncy Castle and Thrifty Foods, CUPE, Woodgrove Centre and the Downtown Partnership who donated tents.

Special recognition also goes to the local Rotary Clubs who supported the project in a variety of ways and in particular to Rotarians Wendy Ferrero and Nicole Gosselin who appeared as fortune tellers in training during the event and the Downtown Rotary Club who sold a king’s ransom worth of hotdogs! A round of applause is also due to Aruna who did henna artistry and to the youth at NYSA who ran the basketball event.

This definitely is a city full of Hidden Heroes and a high percentage of them are teenagers, the ones who don’t often enough get recognized by us adults.