On July 13th, I saw a news story break on CTV (link here) and the Twitter account @torontomike that really struck a chord with me. Someone had broken into a children's garden at Second Street Junior Middle School overnight and stolen all of their most expensive flowers. This garden was a summer project for the students, where they were growing not only flowers, but fruits and vegetables to later give to a local food bank. The children and their parents had raised the money themselves to pay for the garden, and each child was responsible for looking after a certain plant over the summer. How awful that one morning, they arrived at their garden to find the results of their hard work gone.
I remembered what it was like as a child to learn that there are people out there who don't care about hurting others, even if those they hurt are innocent children. This was a horrible realisation for me when I was young, and I hate that these kids, who were working on something to really be proud of, were taught this, through one thoughtless individual's actions.
I decided I wanted to get involved, so I contacted Toronto Mike and some of the parents helping with the garden. We decided to create this fundraiser to not only give the kids some money to rebuild the garden, but also to show them that while there's one selfish person out there who stole from them, there are a lot more people who are willing to help. Let's put the smiles back on the kids' faces!
What We Need
The students originally raised $500 themselves to pay for their garden, and now have nothing left to replace what was stolen. Our goal is to give them back that $500, so they can go out and buy new flowers, and keep up the great work they were doing with the community.
Every little bit helps! This campaign will run for ten days, and no matter how much is raised, every cent goes to the gardeners. If we exceed our goal, that's more money they can put towards plants, soil, tools, or other garden supplies. Wouldn't that be awesome?
Other Ways You Can Help
Spread the word! Link to the news story (here) and this campaign page on social media. The more people we get involved, the more we can restore these kids' faith in humanity!