Holy Redeemer is known for having excellent academic and extracurricular programs that offer a wide range of opportunities for their students. One particular program of importance to HRH is the Beyond the Classroom Program.
“The Beyond the Classroom (BTC) Program focuses on a life skills curriculum,” says Principal Betty Churchill. “Our Lifeskills Facilitator, Dede Poulin, includes as many educational opportunities as possible for the students in our group to learn by doing. And I’m happy to say that everyday they are learning new skills in order to be successful later in life.”
The BTC class has a number of objectives that see students learn the basics of budgeting, currency, cooking, developing community relationships, and planning. To do this, Poulin and the students raise money through different fundraising endeavours.
“Tied to this is the way we also help to install important attitudes such as pride, personal growth, problem solving, resiliency, and self-esteem,” says Poulin.
A few fundraising ideas that students have worked on in recent years include the school coffee cart, selling dog biscuits, and selling firestarter kits. This year, these ideas have had some modifications to make them more practical for our group of five enthusiastic students versus last year's group of nine.
This year, the Coffee Cart is now the Coffee Concession. The students work out of the foyer concession on Wednesdays at lunch, serving hot drinks and selling baked goods to the staff and students, with items costing $1.50 each.
The Dog Biscuit Fundraiser has been adjusted to include “do-it-yourself” kits at a lower price and are announcing availability rather than taking orders to maintain a calm and realistic production line. The biscuits will also be sold during the Coffee Concession as well.
“We are planning on making the firestarter kits again this spring,” says Poulin. “We are also excited to be introducing a few new ideas this year too that will show up after the Spring Break, so stay tuned!” All fundraisers will be advertised on the HRH social media pages.
The funds raised from these programs are used for a variety of items to enrich learning. “We have invested in quite a few items to support social skill development and our foods program,” says Poulin. “We have restocked with resources like games, books, and supplies that meet the needs of our current group.”
The students also engage in community experiences such as eating out, going to the library, as well as swimming and bowling. “Each of our kiddos is very unique and we are very lucky to be able to provide quite a bit of customized programming,” adds Poulin. “This spring we're hoping to be able to visit some farms and have some class field trips.”
Needless to say, the Edson community has offered so much support for the program and the BTC group sends out a huge thank you to everyone for purchasing and donating items. “We know there's so much need, and we're all stretched kind of thin these days,” says Poulin. “And that just makes everything we receive that much more special!”
If you are interested in purchasing dog biscuits, or learning more about how you can support the BTC program, please contact Poulin at HRH.