Children at a daycare in Sydney are donating their own stuffed animals to the children of Fort McMurray who lost their teddy bears in the wildfire.
“They were in the fire and they don’t have stuffies anymore,” says donor Katie Rodden, who attends Health Park Early Learning Centre.
More than 50 stuffed animals have been collected for the preschool’s toy drive.
“The children were coming in, speaking about the fire, of course, hearing it on the news,” says daycare owner Helen Gamble. “We took that as a teachable moment and decided maybe the children could learn some small acts of kindness.”
Gamble says collecting toys for the children of Fort McMurray is also a lesson about finding something positive in a scary situation and about feeling empathy for others.
“The big thing about the fire that they were all coming and talking about was ‘where did their toys go?’” says Gamble.
“I think they’re learning compassion and they’re learning how to give it forward, how to make someone happy, even when they don’t know them,” says assistant director Trina Gerard. “You can’t explain how it makes you feel to see the compassion and how much they care for other people at this young an age.”
The stuffed animals were shipped out Wednesday, thanks to a courier company that agreed to send them to Alberta free of charge.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Ryan MacDonald
