A student-led fundraiser at Mother Teresa Early Childhood Education Centre is once again bringing the Lloydminster community together – one donut at a time.
The Kindness Takes Flight: The 5th Donut Mission officially runs from Feb. 1 to 15, but families can get an early look during a Local Organization Fair on Tuesday, Jan. 27, from 4 to 7 p.m. in the school gymnasium.
Organizers say the fair will feature 12 local organizations, giving families a chance to learn about community supports and help decide where fundraiser proceeds will go.
“I’m really excited this year to have 12 local organizations coming to our local organization fair, so that’s really exciting,” said organizer Paige Kindopp, a Grade 1 teacher at Mother Teresa ECEC.
“That doesn’t guarantee that they’re all going to get a portion of the sales, however that just means that these are organizations that have heard about the campaign and that want to be involved and we can use those organizations and help them help people and animals in our community,” she said.
Community organizations taking part
The organizations attending next Tuesday’s fair include:
- Border Paws Animal Shelter
- KidSport Lloydminster
- Lloydminster Regional Health Foundation
- Midwest Family Connections
- Big Brothers Big Sisters of Lloydminster
- Border City Connects Catholic Social Services
- Lloydminster Public Library
- The Olive Tree
- Pets Purpose
- Spark Foundation of Lloydminster
- Lloydminster Rescue Squad
She explained the fair is designed to be hands-on and family friendly.
“It’s where all of the local organizations come in, they set up almost like a booth and they just display what their organization does for people or animals in our community,” she said.
“Families come into the gym, they tour around all of the local organizations, they ask questions, they bring in some hands-on manipulatives and stuff for the kids to actually touch and look at.”
Families help choose where the money goes
A key part of the Donut Mission is that families help decide how funds are distributed.
“The families will actually choose their top three choices that they want to see the money from the sales of the donut campaign at Sobeys go towards,” Kindopp said.
“So yeah the families get involved too, which is really really nice.”
The fundraiser is made possible through a partnership with Sobeys, where student-designed donuts are recreated and sold in-store.
“It’s a student-created project,” Kindopp said.
“Each class in our school creates a donut. With their donut they create a kindness recipe. They get to go through a variety of different voting processes on how to choose the toppings, the glaze and what their donut means to their classroom.”
She said bakery staff work closely with students to bring those designs to life.
“They try very very hard to match each classroom’s design,” she said.
“From there they sell them and half of the proceeds go to local organizations in Lloydminster to help people and animals.”
Three rounds of donuts, one big goal
This year’s campaign will run for only 15 days, broken into three sales rounds. It’s all made possible by the Sobey’s, and co-owner Michelle Rusteika.
Partnering with Mother Teresa School on the kindness donut campaign is so important to us, it is a reflection of who we are, how we operate , and the kind of community we want to help build,” said Rusteika. “Seeing children lead a project that gives back to their community reminds us that community impact does not have to be complicated to be powerful. It can be as simple as kids, creativity, compassion and donuts.”
Kindopp explained how the rounds will work.
“For the first round we have three classrooms and then we have our Mother Teresa donut,” Kindopp said.
“Round two will be February 6th to February 10th and that will be four classrooms. The third round runs from February 11th to February 15th and that will be three new classroom designs and then a Mother Teresa donut as well.”
Since launching the Donut Mission, students have raised $29,379.07 for local causes. This year, the goal is to push that total past $40,000.
“So $11,000 would be fabulous,” Kindopp said.
“We know that it’s a big goal but I think with our Lloydminster community we can definitely achieve it.”
Businesses stepping up
Local businesses are also getting involved, often challenging each other and placing bulk orders for staff.
“Lots of businesses have challenged each other which is super nice,” Kindopp said.
“We also have an online order form for pre-orders and we’ve seen lots of businesses purchase donuts for their workplace.”
She added that Cenovus Energy has played a visible role through internal challenges and community support.
Clothing adds another way to give
New this year is Donut Mission clothing, available through an online order.
“T-shirts are $25 and then crewnecks and hoodies are $40,” Kindopp said.
“It was really fun designing the logo and I feel like this is our best logo and our best campaign name that we’ve had for the project too.”
For Kindopp, the lesson goes beyond fundraising.
“It’s all about a social justice piece first of all and just teaching kids that it doesn’t matter what age you are you can always contribute to our community,” she said.
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