All of our students at Wesley are special and talented in some way. God has blessed each of us with tremendous gifts and potential, each unique and designed to shine at designated moments in our lives.
At times, we like to recognize and congratulate some of the special accomplishments that some of our students achieve outside of their studies at Wesley. In the past, we mainly featured students’ athletic achievements outside of school. Today, we want to introduce one of our grade 7 students who took the initiative to use one of the many talents that God has given her to support the 105 Gibson Centre.
The 105 Gibson Centre is a Christian faith based community centre whose mission is: To serve the locals and those in need, and to share with them the compassion and hope of Jesus. Each year, the centre holds a fundraiser called the 105 Challenge. Individuals or groups can come up with creative ways to raise money for the centre. Ideas usually involve the number 105. For our grade 7 student, she decided to make 105 boxes of baked goods and give them away to various friends, neighbours, people in the community, etc. in exchange for a donation to the 105 Gibson Centre.
When asked why she decided to do this, this is what she wrote:
Back in 2022, when I heard about the war in Ukraine, and many children became orphans, I wanted to do a bake sale to raise funds for the Ukrainian children. However, I didn’t know how to carry it out. When I heard that my church was fundraising for the 105 Gibson Centre, I thought this would be a great opportunity to help people in need. I wanted to use my talents in baking which God gave me, to help others and serve God. I thought it would be a fun challenge to sell 105 packages of my homemade baked goods. I found out very soon it was much more difficult than I thought. When I messed up and got frustrated, God helped me to keep going and He helped me realize that mistakes help me learn. This is my second year taking on this challenge, and this time I baked 540 cookies, 10 coconut tarts, 4 banana breads, and 40 donuts—totaling 594 baked goods!
Not only did our grade 7 student sell all 105 packages of her delicious baked goods, she made an extra 15 boxes because there was so much demand! She also exceeded her initial goal of raising $2, 000.00 for the 105 Gibson Centre. At the end of the fundraising period, she raised $2, 832.00!
By sharing this story, we hope to inspire others to use their God given talents to be salt and light in this world. In turn, we give glory to our Lord God when we see good works done in His name.