Malvern students and teachers hosted ‘Sport-A-Thon’, the annual school-wide sleepover with sports, games, dinner, movies and more, on March 8, to raise money for Corvette Junior Public School.
Corvette is a Scarborough school in desperate need of funding for basic materials including pencils, paper and books, not to mention necessities like toilet paper and soap. This school provides a breakfast and lunch program to its students who can’t afford meals, and around 20 families rely on this program to ensure their children are being fed. Corvette was in rough condition, but thanks to Malvern’s efforts, and those of community members who pledged these students, we were able to raise over $2,000 for the school.
Sport-A-Thon is an event organized by Malvern’s Student Athletic Association (MSAA). They raised awareness for this cause by making announcements and urging students to attend this fun overnight event at school, and over 100 students came out, pledging at least $20 and having fun too!
Jamie Porter, MSAA President, said “the goal of the Sport-a-thon was to use half of the profit to purchase food for their food bank before the school closed for March Break, allowing families to have food over the break. The other half of the profit was put towards the MSAA and helps to purchase Malvern ‘M’s and awards at the Athletic Banquet.”
The night included exciting and riveting games of basketball, soccer, pickleball (a Malvern favourite), floor hockey, volleyball and dodgeball.
Dinner was held in the cafeteria and ‘Malvern Trivia’ was played. The night ended with a showing of the movie Moneyball in the north gym, and then the students separated into gender based gyms to sleep…on the floor! It was rough on our backs, but most definitely worth it.
All the Malvern students thoroughly enjoyed coming together, having a fun-filled night of sports and games, sleeping over at school, and most importantly raising money for a worthy cause!
“It’s an awesome way to raise money and awareness for such an important cause while having fun with friends,” said Sport-A-Thon attendee Madisson Biel.
Corvette Public School was also impressed by all Malvern’s students and community had done. The money that had been raised was directly donated to the school. Nine shopping carts from No Frills in Scarborough had been filled with food for their local food bank.
The food bank in the Corvette community was started last year because the teachers and administration were noticing a lack of attention span, tiredness and other signs of underfed children in their classrooms. Half of the student body live in poverty, and do not have enough money to pay for proper meals. The school took the initiative and responsibility to create the food bank to nourish their students and provide a better and easier learning experience for them.
“The parents were ecstatic and so grateful. It impacted in a big way to the community and students,” said Helen Wong, principal at Corvette.
Currently the money Malvern donated is being used to buy food for the food bank to prepare for the coming Easter long weekend.
“When the school is closed, many of our students do not have access to proper meals,” said Wong, adding that it is important to support the children not only when they are in class, but when they are in our city and communities.
Sport-A-Thon is an annual event Malvern’s MSAA hosts for students, and is a great way to earn community hours, spend time with friends and get involved with the school community. We as students constantly complain about our breaks not being long enough, or never wanting to go to school, but in the case of Sport-A-Thon, over 100 Malvernites chose to not only go to school after hours, but to stay the night as well. We got active, and had fun raising money for a school in need. Well done Malvern!
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