With Giving Tuesday just completed in November, we were very happy to hear from one of our parents on how our philosophy of giving to others ‘through service’ continues to guide our alumnae long after they’ve left these halls. Alumnae Savannah Stephen ‘15 is currently in Moshi, Tanzania volunteering there, for part of this term, working with street children.

She has fallen in love with the children. They have next to nothing to do so she set up a vegetable garden with them and planted tomatoes with some of the children. Given their location, she is using a method of gardening that does not require much watering and will later approach a local nursery to donate seeds and assist with their knowledge. She bought them a swing set and also found scrap wood and is having the children help make a swing and teeter totter. She will introduce them to games like hopscotch, four squares, etc. Her biggest obstacle is getting the children interested. The horrors they have experienced make them cautious and the burdens they carry exhaust them.

We are happy to hear that the core values of HNMCS reach far and wide.

Savannah is pursuing a Conc BPhEd Hons BEd: Int/Senior Phys Ed at Brock University. She recently took a term off to work as a leader at Alive Outdoors during their fall session, allowing her to fulfill an experiential credit she needed. Our grade 11 and 12 students were able to catch up with her as she served as one of the programme facilitators at Camp Arowhon, our leadership camp.