This is a story about a few individual Hidden Heroes and a school full of them. It’s also about correcting a false impression of an entire student body.

The story starts with Rotarian Chris Everett.

Inspired by last fall’s amazing $10,000 Zimbabwe AIDS orphans fundraising effort by our Nanaimo High School Interact Club, Chris organized a city-wide drive he calls, “Pennies from Heaven” to gain additional support for the orphans.

Lead by Interactors Kelsey Roden and Kyle Roux, who focused mainly on elementary schools in the area, the students at Wellington Secondary jumped on board with great enthusiasm and collected so many pennies it took teams of students several days to count them. I know how daunting the task was because I spent a couple of hours with one of those teams counting and rolling pennies and we hardly made a dent in the pile.

A month or so ago, this school was featured on the front pages of our newspapers because of a few students who made a poor choice and decided to stage fights to be video taped and shown on the Internet. From what I have heard, a lot of people began to apply that negative image to the entire school.

When I spoke to Grade 12 student, Kelsey Roden, and Vice Principal, Karen Proctor, as the penny drive was coming to an end, they were quick to correct that image.

Karen wasn’t surprised by the students’ huge act of compassion for others less fortunate than they.

“This is typical of our students,” she assured me. “They are wonderfully active in our school and in the community. They give us reason to be proud of them every day.”

Kelsey, this year’s class Valedictorian, echoed those sentiments. A leader among leaders, she assured me that her experience with the school and its students has been “amazing.”

To give you an idea of the kind of person Kelsey is, I got the following email from her soon after I got home from our interview.

“Hi Bill: I just had a request about the article you will be writing. Although I organized the drive, could you make sure and feature the entire student council? Obviously I couldn't have done it on my own. They really pitched in and helped out a lot. So if possible could you make sure that the focus is on the council and on the classes that contributed? That would be awesome. I don't want to be too picky, but thanks for doing this! It’s about time Wellington got some good recognition rather than being seen as a ‘violent school’. Thanks a lot!”

From my experience, that email provides an accurate picture of Wellington and its students. It also tells me even more about Kelsey Roden and why she was chosen to be class Valedictorian.

Speaking about correcting false images let me tell you about my brief visit to the Senior Alternate Class at Wellington.

As one of the students in the class told me, they are supposed to be the “trouble makers”. They are kids who for one reason or another have made some bad choices, dropped out of school, and eventually found their way back.

They are also the class that raised the most money during the school penny drive. In fact they raised enough money to pay school fees for 37 AIDS orphans for an entire year.

Fortunately all but two of these students will be retuning next year because when they heard how the money they raised would be used, they have chosen to connect directly with the Zimbabwe students next school year to see just what else they can do to help.

When you learn even a few of the facts, I’m sure you’ll agree that Wellington Secondary is a pretty darned good school.Am I right?