March 5, 2010 - Thornlea - SharpSchool

On March 3 rd , 2010, 15 York Region District School Board International Co-op (ICE) students boarded a plane
from Toronto to begin our 3 month stay in Ecuador, South America. Since we began our journey back in June
2009, we have grown from the many experiences and obstacles we have encountered along the way. Each student
in our ICE 2010 team has brought their own strengths and skills to get to this point.
As part of our preparation towards Ecuador, our biggest single activity was running the ICE 20 th Anniversary,
Dinner and Dance Fundraiser, held on the night of Friday, February 19 th , 2010. Organizing such a big
event meant there were many tests of perseverance and improvisation throughout the night, but by using our
collective strengths, we pushed beyond each hurdle we faced. In simple terms, what did for Feb 19 th was:
-organize, set up and run a silent auction consisting of over 200 items, each ranging from $25 -
$800 in value that our team members collected during the previous months;
-sell and track ticket sales, and then group 10 guests per table to create a seating plan for the
more than 300 attendees;
-create an effective systems for receiving, checking-in at the door, and then escorting guests to
their tables’;
-prepare appetizers for everyone in attendance;
-gather and care for the items deposited at our coat check,
-organize and support our entertainers such as the Ecuadorian Dance Troupe Huairapungo, Dance Heads Ontario
and a foursome from Soul in Motion Dance Arts Academy Inc,
-emcee and run the evening’s program;
-trouble shoot along the way; and
-find a way to bid a hardy goodbye to our own friends and family.
In all it involved a lot of preparation beforehand and activity during the six hour event.
Behind the scenes on February 19 th , many of us had our doubts and felt some sense of impending failure, yet
we kept busy throughout the night, running around with purposeful objectives in our minds often only to be
side-tracked by complications. Some of us were quiet under the pressure, communicating to group members
to try to calm everyone down, others dealt with their stress in different ways. Every one of the 15 students
was different, yet we all came together when the event was over and celebrated it. This was a feat that we
all conquered in our own ways but produced a group result. While we initially had our doubts, in the end the
night was a big success! Financially we netted over $13 000 of proceeds toward the groups’ funds for the
journey or roughly 16% the team’s total program fees. And the unexpected bonus… we learned more about
working together and supporting each other as a team which we know we will draw upon as we live with host
families and work at our agricultural, business, education, health care and social work Co-op placements in
Ecuador from March through May.
On behalf of the International Co-operation Education (ICE) Team 2010, we would like to thank you all for
attending the dinner, purchasing auction items and being ongoing financial and emotional supporters of the
program and our involvement in it. Wish us a bit of “buena suerte” (good luck) for our next stage of the journey!
Ziana Juma and Jadeney Wong
Grade 11 Thornlea SS students and ICE 2010 team members