The Gowrie St kids raised the money to say thank you to Mr Elmaz for supporting the community during the August lockdown that saw a third of Shepparton residents in isolation; presenting the cheque to Mr Elmaz on December 13.
The students sold icy poles for 50c every Friday for five weeks, selling a total of 400, to other students at the school.
This money, along with other money raised before Christmas, will go towards donating meals to those who are doing it tough during the festive season, Mr Elmaz said, estimating the kids’ contribution to be the equivalent of 30 to 40 meals.
The junior school council plans on continuing to do charity work in the community, setting a high bar for the next council.
Mr Elmaz has also been donating bread and sometimes soup to the school for the kids. Although, sometimes the bread doesn’t make it all the way home.
“(A student) came up to the office to ask something, but she had some of the bread that we handed out that afternoon and she was just eating it out of the packet,” Gowrie St family liaison officer Kerry Mathews said.
Some of the parents were slightly uncertain about the origin of the bread. Ms Mathews said one parent even called up because she thought her son might have been “holding up IGA for their bread”.
Now the current junior school council is graduating, the students will need to figure out how to keep up their philanthropy at high school.
“This is very nice, but this is not the end. I am expecting you to come and help me in the soup kitchen ... so I won’t be alone in the kitchen,” Mr Elmaz said.
Some of the kids were a bit tentative about the idea at first, but student Samantha Blanton was fully on board.
“I would absolutely do that,” she said.
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