Students pay it forward with chocolate

After it helped to raise hundreds of dollars for Comox Valley charities, a 55-pound Easter egg was used as a piñata by Valley View Elementary School students.

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A 55-pound chocolate Easter egg was recently on display in the Hot Chocolates store.

Veronica Hastings, a Grade 4 student at Valley View Elementary School whose mother works at the store, mentioned to Hot Chocolates owner Jorden Marshall how she would love to be able to share this egg with her classmates.

Marshall liked Hastings’ message of sharing and decided to donate the egg to Valley View School.

In keeping with the spirit of sharing, kindness and generosity, each of the 17 divisions at Valley View “hatched” a plan of how they could “pay it forward” and give back to others.

Marshall donated an additional 33 pounds of chocolate to the school, and the 88 pounds of chocolate were divided evenly amongst all of the classes.

Each class chose to use its five pounds of chocolate in different ways.

Many classes baked with it and raised money for various organizations through bake sales, while others donated the chocolate itself.

At the end of this process, Valley View students raised $102 for the popular Comox Valley charity You Are Not Alone (YANA); $196.80 for the Canadian Cancer Society’s Relay for Life; $43.88 for the SPCA and $145 for Ronald McDonald House.

Marshmallow chocolate cups were also presented to the nurses at St. Joseph’s General Hospital, peanut clusters were made for Father’s Day gifts, chocolate cookies were donated to the Comox Valley Food Bank, and chocolate was given to the firefighters at the Comox Fire Hall and elders at the Big House.

Several classes also chose to share their chocolate with their Big Buddy classes.

The Valley View Elementary School community thanks owner Jorden Marshall and the Hot Chocolates staff for this generous gift and for allowing the students the chance to give back to others, which was an incredible learning opportunity.

Lisa Scheck is the vice-principal of Valley View Elementary School.