A class of grade five students is putting in a lot of time and a great deal of work to put smiles on the faces of sick kids at Christmas.

Kendra Jewer's class from Herons Crossing School in Airdrie are in the midst of "Operation Joy" which is trying to raise $3,000 to purchase Christmas gifts for children staying at Ronald McDonald House in Calgary. 

This weekend, the students have a booth set up at the annual Herons Crossing Christmas Fair, which started yesterday and runs again today at Ralph McCall School, 1505 1st Avenue NW.   They're selling beautiful handmade Christmas gifts, decorations, cards and baked goods supplied by the parents.

Jewer explains how the project got started.  "We have a meeting every Friday where the kids just come and talk about things they want to do.  So I had them write it down.  They kind of wrote by themselves, not talking much, and when I collected them almost all of them had something about how they wanted to support something in the community, which is kind of cool for grade five students, you don't always get that at that age."

Jewer told the kids she'd read their wishes and promised that they'd definitely do something.  She didn't realize just how committed her class of 26 students was to the project.

" One of the girls was in my grade 3 class a couple of years ago and said, 'what about Operation Santa Claus' because we did something similar, but on a much smaller scale a couple of years ago, and all the kids were like, 'Operation Santa Claus' what's that?  Then it started to snowball.  I couldn't really slow it down, which is great.  They came up with a name, they said 'let's call it Operation Joy, because then we can do it year round,' and it just turned into this massive fundraiser project."

Jewer says every member of her class has bought into the project, whole-heartedly.

"It's been absolutely insane.  If you come into our classroom when we're working on Operation Joy it's like every kid is focused, everyone has a job.  We've had kids doing market research to find out how much things sell for, we've had designers, we've had people writing to sponsors.  100 percent of the kids are onside."

Three of the students who were on hand for the Christmas fair yesterday concurred.  They all said it was all hands on deck as they worked to raise the funds needed to provide for children at Ronald McDonald House.  

The culmination of their work will come on December 13th.  The kids will shop from a list provided by the people at RMH and then drive into Calgary for a tour of the facility and deliver their gifts to the families.  

Jewer says they have received remarkable support from community sponsors who have provided supplies at low cost or free of charge, including Stuck On You Vinyl, Michael's in Airdrie, Gemini Designs, Staples in Airdrie and the Cross Iron Mills Lowe's store.  

If you'd like to stop by to see the kid's work at the Christmas fair, it's on until 3:00 pm this afternoon.

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