Hats with a heart

The grade 7 and 8 students were allowed to wear hats or pyjama bottoms to school on Friday, paying $2 per item for the privilege.

According to Principal Hans Bulow, more than $1,000 was raised at the end of the day.

The total included funds generated by a Bake Sale organized and set up by the library staff.

Bulow said in a departure from normal school rules, which prohibit kids from wearing hats while in the building, he spent the day warning students to “put your hats on.” “It was pretty funny, the kids would look at me and laugh,” Bulow said, adding many students donated more than $2 per item.

In all, more than three-quarters of students wore hats or pyjamas, or they purchased baked goods during the day.

The money raised by the school will be given to an organization called Free the Children.

The group, dedicated to ending child labour, was started in 1995 by Toronto youth Craig Kielburger when he was 12-year-old.

Kielburger was moved to do something after reading a Toronto Star headline proclaiming "Battled Child Labour Boy, 12, Murdered.”

The newspaper story focused on a boy from South Asia, Iqbal Masih, who was sold into slavery when he was 4-years-old.

The article, said Masih, had spent six years chained to a carpet-weaving loom. Despite that, the boy captured the world's attention by speaking out for children's rights.

Kielburger and 11 school friends launched Free The Children, the world's largest network of children helping children through education.

It boasts help from more than one million young people involved in programs in 45 countries.

Bulow says Free the Children has operated a school and an orphanage in Haiti for the past four years. “We know that since the earthquake the school has been turned into a hospital,” he said, adding, “The funds we raised will go directly there to help with their needs.”

All schools with the Lester B. Pearson School Board are affiliated with Free the Children, he added.