The members of the newly-formed Nighthawk Community Crew proudly showcase the food items they donated to the Osoyoos Food Bank and clothing items donated to the Osoyoos Gift Cupboard after its inaugural event to help improve their community. On hand for the presentation were school vice-principal Amanda Jones (back row far left) and Grade 6 and 7 teacher Ryan Miller (back row far right) and Osoyoos Gift Cupboard founders Brenda Dorosz (back row second from left) and Gaye Horn (back row second from right). (Contributed photo)

A group of young students from Osoyoos Elementary School who have committed to making Osoyoos a better place to live made the Christmas season a whole lot better for numerous local residents.

A group of boys in Grade 6 and 7 at the local elementary school who decided to call themselves the Nighthawk Community Crew helped raise a couple hundred pounds of food for the Osoyoos Food Bank and led a campaign to have local residents donate warm clothing for the Osoyoos Gift Cupboard.

The Nighthawk Community Crew was the brainchild of vice principal Amanda Jones and veteran teacher Ryan Miller, who teaches Grade 6 and 7 students at Osoyoos Elementary.

“A group of students wanted to work together to try and assist the community,” said Jones. “We discussed a few different ideas and decided as a group that helping the homeless was at the top of their priority list.”

The group of nine boys distributed dozens of plastic shopping bags on the doorknobs of homes located within walking distance of the school and left an attached note informing them they would gladly accept donations of non-perishable food items for the local food bank and warm clothing, including mittens, scarves, toques and gloves, which would then be donated to the Osoyoos Gift Cupboard.

The inaugural project for the Nighthawk Community Crew was an overwhelming success, said Jones.

“We ended up collecting about 200 pounds of food and we ended up with all kinds of warm winter clothing,” she said. “On top of the mittens, scarves and toques we were asking for, we had people donating turtleneck sweaters, toiletries and even several blankets.”

All of the food items were picked up by volunteers with the Osoyoos Food Bank and all of the warm clothing and household items were picked up by volunteers with the Osoyoos Gift Cupboard this past Tuesday, said Jones.

The boys with the Nighthawk Community Crew were very proud of the success of this project and rightfully so, she said.

“The boys did a great job and they all took a great deal of pride in doing their small part to assist the local community,” she said. “It was great to see the smiles on their faces knowing they are helping other members of their community.”

The concept behind the Nighthawk Community Crew was to get young boys in Grade 6 and 7 who could benefit from working together to reap positive benefits, said Jones.

“We had discussed putting together a project that would allow a certain group of boys at this age to work together to feel good about themselves, while working on a project that would help others,” she said.

This Christmas fundraising campaign is the first of many projects the Nighthawk Community Crew will engage in before the end of the school year, said Jones.

“We’ve talked about a few other projects already,” she said. “We’ve talked about selling hot chocolate and handing the proceeds over to local community groups and maybe visiting the local retirement home and helping out seniors there.

“We will finalize a few more of these projects once we pass the holiday season and then get to work on putting things together.”

While she’s excpetionally proud of the members of the Nighthawk Conmunity Crew, Jones said  the generosity of Osoyoos residents is why this Christmas campaign was so successful.

Osoyoos residents have proven time and time again they will support worthy causes and they came through once again in assisting this campaign, said Jones.

Miller is a committed teacher who loves being involved in programs that benefit not only his students, but the community at large and he deserves a lot of the credit for working hard over the past few weeks to put this campaign together and encouraging the students to work as a team, said Jones.

Because of the success of this Christmas campaign, Jones said there’s a very good chance that the Nighthawk Community Crew will hold a similar event over the holiday season next year and that it will hopefully become an annual event.

The fact that many local residents will be able to enjoy a nutritious and healthy Christmas meal and others will be able to wear warm clothing is very heartwarming for the members of the Nighthawk Community Crew and all of the students at the school, said Jones.

“They wanted to make a difference and they did.”

KEITH LACEY

Osoyoos Times