December 12th, 2019

A teacher’s passion project has inspired students at Elizabeth Ziegler Public School to give back to their community.

Erin Reader Norris’ students started to realize that things were unfair in the world, and they wanted to do something about it. With winter quickly approaching and their desire to help those in need, the Grade 4/5 French Immersion teacher shared the Bliss Bag project with her class.

A student writes a message of hope, on a cutout heart, for a Bliss Bag recipient.

“They started to understand that we have people in our community who have a bigger need than us,” shared Reader-Norris, which stemmed from a conversation about the street-involved population.

They loved the idea, and things took off from there.

“Our teacher asked us if we wanted to do the Bliss Bags, and we said yes!” said Andrew, a Grade 5 student. “She explained what these small care packages are, and we thought we could start it in the fall so the homeless population could be ready for winter.”

Bliss bags are small care packages that provide some day to day needs for people who live on the streets. They can have anything in them but usually are made up of clothing, hand warmers, bus tickets, gift cards, or small plastic tarps. Anything to make their difficult lives a little bit easier.

Students pack the Bliss Bag.

Using their research skills, the students came up with a list of items they wanted to include in the bags.

“They looked at what items are the most requested at shelters in Ontario, and included personal preference items as well,” explained Reader-Norris. “They also decided that the people in need should have some fun too, not just necessities,” so the class added items like cards and candy.

“We picked these items because these are the most needed things for these people – like hats, gloves, scarves, and first aid kits,” explained Cameryn, another Grade 5 student. She went on to explain that, “these are the things that are helping people survive the winter nights.”

Nolan, a Grade 5 student, echoed his classmate, “we chose these items because we went through a list of items of people’s needs and wants,” he said. “So a toothbrush and toothpaste is something you need, toys are something that you want.”

From there, the class narrowed down the list to fifteen items. To help, they came up with parameters, and they were able to eliminate some of the bigger items. For example, it had to fit into a freezer ziplock bag, so automatically, items such as boots or snowsuits were crossed off.

The Bliss Bag project roadmap.

Next, they had to choose which shelter they would donate the Bliss Bags too. Students chose the shelter by doing additional research by reading mission statements of local shelters and who they cater to.

This year, the class decided that their Bliss Bags will be donated to the YMCA Emergency Shelter in Kitchener.

“The class chose this shelter because they wanted to touch the whole community – youth, families, men, women, LGTBQ+ – not just individuals,” said Reader-Norris.

Once they had the foundational information to create a giving campaign, they called upon their fellow schoolmates.

Reader-Norris’ Grade 4/5 class created presentations for the school. They presented their initiative to each class and asked them to be in charge of collecting one item off their list. The willingness to help was so overwhelming that each item had two classes assigned to it.

Their goal was 30 Bliss Bags, but thanks to the generous donations from the Elizabeth Ziegler PS school community, they had enough supplies to create 67. “The community has been amazing,” said Reader-Norris.

Erin Reader-Norris and her class with all the Bliss Bags.

Once the project wrapped up, students had some time to reflect on the experience. Cameryn shared, “before this project, I thought homelessness was a regular thing, like, ‘it’s fine, we don’t have to do anything.’ But now, when you look at it, when you’ve seen what we need to do, it’s terrible. It is something we need to step up and do something about.”

The school’s motto, “living and learning hand in hand,” really encompasses what this project is all about. We, as a board, could not be more thankful for the hands-on learning opportunity Ms. Reader-Norris has offered her students.

We are grateful for all our students and staff who are making a difference in this world, one act of giving at a time.

A Time of Giving in the WRDSB

As we count down to the winter break, we are highlighting just a few of the generous acts of kindness our staff and students are modelling. From students collecting socks for the less fortunate, to kindergarteners serenading seniors, these are just a few of the amazing things happening across our board at this time of year.

You can check out all of the great acts of giving in our schools (they happen all year round!) by following us on social media and using the hashtag #WRDSBgives.