Westmount Elementary supports local animal shelter
By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Grade 5-6 students at Westmount Elementary School raised a donation of $2,465.90 during their annual Christmas Marketplace for the Happy Cat Sanctuary in Strathmore.
The event, which took place Dec. 21, was the 17th annual occurrence of the market, which is meant to teach students about setting up a business, profits, losses, floats, and money management.
“All our Grade 5-6 students set up businesses and they make Christmas decorations, or trinkets, bookmarks, anything that they can make themselves – soap, cards, bath bombs, candles, and they sell them to all the other kids in the school,” said Marie Cooke, a Grade 5 teacher with Westmount School. “The kids take them and use them as Christmas presents for their families. Then, all the money that we raise, we donate to a charity every year. This year, we donated $2,465 to the Happy Cat Pet Sanctuary.”
Cooke added this total is a pretty typical amount to see raised through the annual Christmas market. The school generally anticipates raising between $2,500 and $2,600 every year for the charity selected to benefit from the activity.
“In the past, we have let the kids decide where they want their money to go to. In the past, we have donated to the Wheatland County Food Bank, to the Christmas Hamper Society – last year we did to the Strathmore Overnight Shelter,” explained Cooke. “We have done Project Hope, we also did fish farming in Haiti one year. The kids always pick and this year, they picked Happy Cat Pet Sanctuary.”
She explained last year, half of the funds raised through the Christmas market were sent to the Overnight Shelter, and half were sent to Happy Cat. This year, all of the proceeds went to the pet sanctuary.
The event took place over the course of a school afternoon, which serves as the culmination of the business lesson taught to the students, and allows for the sale of all their wares to their peers.
“It is one afternoon and they sell all their stuff and all the other students in the school, like all the kindergarten to Grade 4s come around and buy things,” said Cooke. “Parents come in, the community comes in and spends the money and buys all the little trinkets.”
The Happy Cat Sanctuary itself currently supports roughly 75 cats, with their maximum capacity being roughly 100 animals. This cap, however, is taxing on staff and volunteers and stretches resources thin.