{"id":25734,"date":"2020-01-23T18:40:51","date_gmt":"2020-01-23T23:40:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=25734"},"modified":"2020-01-31T19:43:59","modified_gmt":"2020-02-01T00:43:59","slug":"students-come-together-to-help-australian-wildlife-following-bushfires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/students-come-together-to-help-australian-wildlife-following-bushfires\/","title":{"rendered":"Students come together to help Australian wildlife following bushfires"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Aurora students came together last week to make a lasting\ndifference for wildlife left devastated by devastating ongoing bushfires in\nAustralia \u2013 one tasty morsel at a time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Images of the inferno ravaging the continent have gripped\nthe world and recently captured the attention of primary students at Aurora\u2019s\nLighthouse Learning and Development Centre, a private school for children with\nAutism located on Old Yonge Street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beginning last Wednesday, January 15, continuing through\nFriday, January 17, the students opened their doors to the community, offering\ndozens of different varieties of cookies, cakes and squares, some baked\nin-house and by the Lighthouse parent community, and some donated from local\nbakeries, raising hundreds of dollars for the Steve Irwin Foundation,\nbenefiting the Australia Zoo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn our classroom, we\u2019re always focusing on kindness and\nhelping others,\u201d says teacher Megan Jeanes. \u201cAs well, we have been talking\nabout animals in our science and non-fiction unit, so it kind of met together\nat a perfect time with what is going on in Australia. I thought it was a great\nopportunity to show that we can be helpful to others, not only in our own\ncommunity, but to make an impact globally.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When The Auroran visited Lighthouse before classes began\nThursday morning, the place was buzzing as students, parents and teachers\npicked out their sweets as students collected money for the baked goods from a\nstand decorated with images of wildlife directly impacted by the bushfires.\nEach dollar received was carefully placed into a big glass jar emblazoned with\n\u201cKoala Funds\u201d and an image of the marsupial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In selecting images, Ms. Jeanes says she shied away from\nsome of the more graphic photos emerging from the environmental disaster, but\ndid not shy away from giving students a real picture of the devastating\nsituation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have talked about the fires and how that has affected\ntheir homes and the animals themselves,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is a bit of a sensitive\ntopic to kind of dance around, but we have been giving them the truth. The\nstudents have really tried to get a sense that there is someone who needs their\nhelp. Looking at the pictures of koalas, kangaroos and different animals in\ntheir homes and looking at what the fires have done to their homes, it really drives\nhome how massive the damage has been.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When they were looking at ways to make a positive\ndifference, the class decided a bake sale was the best way to rally the\ncommunity, involving not just students and teachers in the planning process,\nbut the entire Lighthouse family as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms. Jeanes says it was \u201call hands on deck\u201d to make it\nhappen and everyone involved \u201cbaked tirelessly\u201d before they opened up their\ndoors last week and, in the process, raising funds for the Steve Irwin\nFoundation\u2019s Wildlife Warriors was just as important as driving home to\nstudents the importance of kindness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe thing that has really resonated with our students is\nthere is a place in the world that is in danger right now, where their homes\nare being taken away from them, and it is their duty as a kind person to offer\ntheir help in any way they can,\u201d says Ms. Jeanes. \u201cThat is something we try to\nfoster in the classroom, child to child, so I think for them to see what they\ncan do globally is important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo often, and I am guilty of it too, when you\u2019re\nthinking about just one person you think you can\u2019t have a huge impact, but\ncoming together as a school, with this bake sale, it really shows that we can\nmake a difference. I am really proud of all of us and proud of the students, the\nwork they have put in, and how much money they have raised.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information on The Steve Irwin Foundation, the Australia Zoo Wildlife Warriors, and how you can help, visit australiazoo.com.au.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aurora students came together last week to make a lasting difference for wildlife left devastated by devastating ongoing bushfires in Australia \u2013 one tasty morsel at a time. Images of the inferno ravaging the continent have gripped the world and recently captured the attention of primary students at Aurora\u2019s Lighthouse Learning and Development Centre, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":25736,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/2020-01-23-01.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6H4","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-17 22:55:42","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}