'How can we help': Edmonton student club creates newspapers, uses profits to give back

As budding journalists at St. Elizabeth Seton elementary and junior high school create newspaper editions, they help spread community cheer and contribute to worthy causes.

The newspaper club involves students from Grade 5 to 9 who write, edit, lay out the paper, market it, and then sell three issues a year.

Like true professionals, the students budget to make some money back that they brainstorm a way to donate to better their community, said teacher Ashleigh Coscarella.

After publishing their latest edition and raising $250, the club decided to use the proceeds to create a gift basket to Mark, Coscarella's high school friend who recently fell into relapse after a transplant for his aplastic anemia.

For Coscarella, teaching her students compassion is done without a textbook and through the club.

"They instantly wanted to do something," she told CTV News Edmonton. "How can we help him?"

"I was shocked that he's going through this. We need to do something about it," said Noach Ebuzoeme, a club member and Grade 5 student.

Mark's only ask was for "good vibes."

The club used their ingenuity and writing skills to craft a basket to help him get through chemotherapy. Among a blanket, snacks, and Booster Juice gift card was a good vibes jar — full of positive messages, inspiring quotes, prayers, riddles, and jokes.

"When he saw the jar full of those notes, he was kind of speechless," Coscarella said.

"It was a good lesson to the kids," she added. "It was the thing in the gift basket that probably cost the least but they spent weeks and put so much heart into these notes. It was the part of the gift that meant the most."

For Grade 6 student and club member Madison Rogge, the hope was to help Mark get through the most challenging days of chemo.

"I felt sad for how he's going through this stuff," Rogge said, "and he's so young.

"If he's ever having a hard time one day, then he can just pick a few papers from the jar, and I'm hoping that it will raise his day and make him happy," Rogge added.

"It's just kinda nice what we did," echoed Payton Stelnaschuk, fellow club member and Grade 5 student. "It kinda made me feel good."

A lesson the budding student journalists want to keep spreading.

"Make sure that you always help people," Ebuzoeme said. "And spread positivity in the world."

"They really want to make our community a better place," Coscarella said.

"It's all them," she added with a laugh. "I'm just here to supervise, and I'm so proud of them."