By Alice Myers
Secondary III
“Fostering community and care for one another.” This is one of the five core values listed on the Tyndale St-Georges Community Centre’s website, which also include “practicing inclusion” and “leading with integrity.” These are the same commitments that encompass Tyndale Week at Royal West Academy in Montreal West – the only school in the EMSB to hold a fundraiser for this underserved community.
The community centre, which offers academic and social programs for all ages, states that its mission is to “empower, help develop and be a presence to the community of Little Burgundy by offering programs designed to promote self-reliance, growth and fulfillment.” They currently serve around 150 families, offering them play groups and workshops, among many other programs. Having been in action for almost one hundred years, since 1927, the non-profit is dependent on donations, which represent over 65 percent of their operating budget.
Since 2007, Royal West has raised over $140,000 for the community centre. However, Tyndale Week has been a staple of the school community since at least 1997. The event consists of each homeroom brainstorming creative fundraisers to encourage people to donate to the Tyndale St-Georges Community Centre, with an additional – and extremely popular – activity called Penny Wars, which raises an impressive amount of money every year. The game divides the school into teams by grade and has members of the Leadership & Leisure Studies course., who took over running the activity fifteen years ago, carry buckets to collect money from students during the recess and lunch periods. Each grade aims to raise the most money using only coins, motivated by the prize of a half-day for the whole grade later on in the year. Dollar bills act as “bombs,” subtracting points from whichever bucket they are deposited in. This leads to an extra influx of donations, as the seventh graders, determined to win, are often seen dropping twenty-dollar bills into the other grades’ buckets. However, they have not yet been introduced to the Tyndale Week tradition, which the school’s principal Tony Pita calls his favourite part of the week: on the last day of Penny Wars, after having consistently placed last for the duration of the fundraiser, the seniors bring buckets of coins to deposit and a number of bills to “bomb” the seventh-graders, winning by a landslide.
The game has evolved over the years, specifically in 2012, when pennies stopped being produced in Canada. Physical Education and Leadership & Leisure Studies teacher Jeffrey. Bateman, who has spent 20 years at Royal West, explains. Presently, all coins count for points, though there have been some challenges involving local banks being unable to supply sufficient loonies and toonies to meet the students’ demand. More recently-created fundraisers are quickly weaving their way into Tyndale Week culture, including Mr. Pita’s personal favourite: teacher karaoke. Students can pay to see their teachers get onstage in the auditorium and sing their hearts out. Marie-Claire O’Neil, a physical education teacher who has been working at Royal West for 32 years, notes that Tyndale Week is not only entertaining for the students, but also provides a fun environment for the staff. She says the event serves as “an opportunity for the community to come together,” noting the elevated levels of excitement in her homeroom during Tyndale Week. Ms. O’Neil also highlights the fact that students are more eager to be at school during the fundraisers. “It feels like a family,” she emphasizes.
Jamal Zigby, a finance, biology, and physics teacher who has worked at Royal West for 25 years, shares this sentiment. He calls Tyndale “a week of activities that builds and fuels homeroom bonds,” noting the positive effect it has on the community. Like Ms. O’Neil, he notes that the “excitement of working together” during the fundraisers strengthens relationships within the school.
Mr. Pita agrees, emphasizing the importance of building community with shared values and goals. “We talk too much about what divides us,” he says, “instead of what we have in common.” He has been working at Royal West for 14 (non-consecutive) years combined, saying, “Life always brings [him] back to Royal West.” He says that despite our individual differences, we all come together in the spirit of giving, and that when we do so, there is “nothing we couldn’t do.”