Town of Mount Royal’s Michael Kounadis is one sharp fellow. The Selwyn House
high school student made an immediate impression upon me as he stepped to the
microphone as part of a well produced program organized by the McGill University Health Centre (MUCH).
Kounadis, whose dad Dennis is one of the city’s sharpest lawyers,
was taking part in the public kick-off of The Toonie Challenge,
an MUHC initiative involving local Montreal schools. Students have been busy collecting toonies for
the MUHC Foundation as part of the hospital’s Best Care for Life Campaign,
which supports the building of the new Glen site and vital equipment purchases.
The long-term fundraising goal is to raise 69,000 toonies ($138,000), enough to
circle the entire Glen site (1,932 metres) if placed end-to-end.
Held at Glen Hall of the new MUCH Administrative Centre next
to the Vendome Metro and a short walk from the new super hospital which will be completed in the fall of 2014, the ceremony fed on the
enthusiasm of youngsters like Kounadis who spoke about how they organized their
own toonie challenges. “We did a bake
sale during Valentine’s Day,” Kounados explained, “and a joint school carnival with The Study.”
A total of $14,012 was raised – representing 7,006
toonies. Besides Selwyn House, other QAIS (Quebec Association of Independent Schools) participating
schools were ECS, Lower Canada College,
Sacred Heart, The Study, Trafalgar, Vanguard, Villa Maria and Queen of Angels. Tim Peters from the PriorySchool was there with some student ambassadors and Irene Miller from the
English Montreal School Board, each party observing for possible participation
next year.
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Students proudly display a large version of the cheque, representing the money raised in the Toonie Challenge. That is Michael Kounadis, second row, fifth from the right. |
At ECS, for instance,
the students sold smoothies for $4 (two toonies) , organized toonie races
(lining toonies up along the ground) and held a free dress day. The latter was
a common activity at most schools.
Dr. Jonathan Meakins, Director of the Heritage Centre of the
MUHC, praised the Toonie Challenge and noted that this initial donation
represents 10 percent of the toonies necessary to surround the new site.
Following the presentation, students will be invited to
visit a variety of health kiosks covering topics such as nutrition, the
importance of volunteering, nursing, trauma prevention and more.
After the speeches, students and guests circulated around the room
to browse at different information kiosks dealing with everything from archival items to nutrition.
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