It's not every day that you see a group of kids on the side of the road collecting donations for charity but that's exactly what happened in Ogema. 

Kara Leonard-Schmidt and her group of Kindergarten, Grade 1, and Grade 2 students rallied the community of Ogema to come together for a massive donation to the Family Place in Weyburn.

"It all came about from a conversation during our social studies class and we were talking about the outcome that discusses needs and wants and how we have dynamic relationships in our community and how we can work together to meet our own needs and wants," she said. "We talked about the basic needs of food, shelter, water, love, and then it came to a conversation that there are people who don't have those basic needs. The kids were kind of taken aback by that and so I said there are ways we can help."

From there, Kara, her classroom staff, and students began to brainstorm how they could help someone in need. 

Kara remembered seeing a post from The Family Place, which helps families in the area, and the group agreed that they had found their cause. One of Kara's friends brought in a bunch of boxes for the class to paint and decorate and the fundraiser soon took on a life of its own. 

"It was kind of amazing because I wasn't sure ow it would be received in the community or within our school because it was just our own little project," she noted. "The very next day when we came to school the kids were so excited because there was already macaroni and pasta and Rice Krispies in the box."

She added that the group decided to make the experience even bigger by involving even more of the community.

"We did a drive downtown," she said. "We went on location to the BA station, our local heritage site, the corner that everybody sells lemonade from but we were collecting donations."

By the end of the drive, she had a car full of items to donate to the Family Place.

"It was a pretty great experience and honestly we're beyond grateful for the support of our community," she said. "It made this donation drive a success and I honestly think that this was a perfect example of how the best learning comes from doing and these kids really did it and I'm super proud of them and they should be proud."

Kara also sent in a handful of videos that show that the kids are, indeed, very proud of what they accomplished.

 

Here's our full conversation with Kara: