SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Shrills of excitement and laughter filled the Weledeh Catholic School gymnasium Tuesday afternoon as students and staff celebrated the school's involvement in supporting those who need it at home and abroad.

The elementary school showcased four teachers who received cream pies in the face from students as a reward for their involvement in collecting canned food.

"This is the first time our school has ever done an incentive of pie throwing in the principal's face or a teacher's face or that kind of thing," said Liz Baile, school principal. "I had a parent e-mailing me saying they loved the assembly and that the student said, 'Mom, yesterday the assembly was hilarious.'"

The idea of throwing pies in the face of staff came as the result of an initiative by the Do Edaezhe program, which in part encourages students to participate in community events, along with promoting leadership and social justice.

Trent Hamm, a co-organizer of the program said when a school-wide competition began in November to see which class could collect the most cans for charity, teachers began stepping up to volunteer their faces as motivation.

The pie throwing celebrated 1,500 cans accumulated.

"Initially it was the top classroom and that teacher volunteered to take a pie in face," Hamm said. "But then Liz Baile offered to take one in the face ... and then Mr. (Ian) Brown volunteered to take a pie in the face when his class made such a push at the end of the campaign to get over 300 cans."

Hamm said cans of food went to the Society of St. Vincent De Paul and St. Patrick's Parish on Wednesday.

The school has also been supporting Syrian refugees after a letter from Lindsay Armer, with the group Yellowknifers Supporting Refugees, was circulated to all three territorial school boards in November. Armer asked for schools to raise awareness about the Syrian refugee crisis and to send donated funds to Canadian Red Cross from locally-run events.

Armer said a number of schools contributed in their own ways and Weledeh has shown a great deal of generosity. Other schools that have participated include Allain St-Cyr, Sir John Franklin High School and William McDonald School.

"We were looking for schools and community groups to participate in the fundraising dinner (Dec. 5) in terms of raising awareness and education for the four to eight million in the refugee crisis going on right now," Armer said. "Often kids will bring home what they learned at school and tell their parents about it."

Through Weledeh's Faith Leadership Team - a group of 25 students between nine and 12 years old - the school was involved in four events of support which included "eating like a refugee." This involved students spending a day eating rice and lentils with water, Dec. 2. The idea is to get students eating like people in a refugee camp.

Other events the team were involved in leading included a hot chocolate fundraiser which raised $400 for the Red Cross, making posters to help advertise the Red Cross dinner, and a talent show with their own refugee-related skits on Dec. 18.

The assembly also featured an awards presentation to 35 students from the Department of Education, Culture and Employment for school involvement in the government's awareness program called Should I Stay or Should I Go? The program, which began this year, gets students creatively telling other students why it is important to go school. Kourtni Beaulieu, who was beaming with pride after winning an iPad, was the top winner.

"Because attendance is an important issue, I thought there should be a school-wide assembly to have those students in front of everybody presenting what they did and the important message to kids that school is important to them and coming to school is a good thing."

Catherine Son, school community liaison, led the awareness program.

Part of her job is to help find out which students are away from school and connecting with families to offer support in barriers that might prevent students getting to school.

Baile said some of those barriers include the cost of transportation or complications of travelling from home to school.

"Sometimes kids, in any grade, are reluctant to go to school because it is overwhelming or it is hard and I would say those are probably the only reasons," Baile said.

"We are concerned about attendance, but I think the whole territories are concerned, for sure. When kids are here, it is amazing.

"They end up owning the fact they are coming every day and are better at academics and friendships because they not missing much. They feel reconnected."

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.