Earlier this year the grade eight students of St. Basil School put on a benefit concert entitled “Choose Life.” Each year, as part of the grade eight music programme, the students are required to create a theatrical performance. A theme is discussed, studied and the students are then asked to work within the theme chosen, preparing skits and integrating music to the drama. All school students and parents are invited to the performance and encouraged to make donations to a previously-selected non-profit organization. This year the organization chosen to receive the money was Campaign Life.
This year’s concert was a huge success with $323,75 being donated to Campaign Life.
As a follow-up to the concert, each student was asked to write an essay or poem describing the significance of their experience. The two entries judges the best were then selected to have their works published in the school newspaper. The following poem by Lia Caponecchia and brief essay by Peter J. Grdadolnik were the winners in that contest:
Choose Life
We walked into class in the usual way,
Thinking we’d do what we do everyday.
Then Mrs. Turnbull said we have a project to do,
It would take a lot of work and effort we knew.
She explained it was a project to help others,
For in the eyes of God we are brothers.
The money we raise will go to the needy,
For that reason we worked quickly and anxiously.
We had to plan, prepare and practice,
And we all had to be an actor or actress.
We had auditions to show our skit and dances,
If in case we had some rough spots she gave us two chances.
The day had arrived to present our show,
We were nervous but that, the audience didn’t know.
So they applauded and they smiled,
Which made our nerves much more mild.
For now I see what the concert was for,
I only wish we could help so much more.
It made me realize this world has much trouble,
And we should help stop it before it can double.
Lia Caponecchia
St. Basil School
Mississauga
Campaign Life
Campaign Life is an organization that respects life at all costs. They try to stop people like Henry Morgentaler from killing innocent fetuses before they have a chance to enjoy life. An organization like Campaign Life is necessary to help keep our society from turning into a shambles.
In school we learn that life is sacred. Only God has the right to choose who lives and who dies. We have no right to decide someone’s fate.
In continuing with the theme “Choose Life” the grade eight students decided to integrate Religion with Music, and so created a “Choose Life” concert. In order to learn more about this theme, a speaker, Fr. Abello, was invited to our classroom. He talked about abortion, euthanasia, suicide, and contraceptives. Fr. Abello told us what was right and what was wrong. God gave us the gift of life and the gift to give life and we should cherish this gift, not abuse it!
The performance was made up of many groups and songs that encourage life. The performances went well except for a little technical difficulty with the sound system. By choosing songs from popular groups we expressed our belief in the right for life. We knew that the students would much rather listen to this, so we let the groups convince the students that life is sacred.
This year the grade eight students will be receiving confirmation and we are obliged to do some community work. By doing the performance we raised $323,75 for Campaign Life and we fulfilled our obligation to our religious program. The performance was a success and we got our message out to the students of how life is too important to waste.
Peter J. Grdadolnik
St. Basil School – Mississauga
