The graduating class at Esquimalt High school has launched their first fundraiser to try to raise money for grad-related events and activities.
According to one graduating student, Elena Marchesan, Esquimalt High students face some barriers that most other students on Vancouver Island don’t have to deal with.
“Esquimalt [High] is one of the highest needs schools in the southern island,” Marchesan told Victoria Buzz.
“A lot of our students don’t have the same financial situation as a lot of the other schools in the district and on the southern island.”
“So a lot of our values at Esquimalt High School are to keep costs down for all students to be able to attend events that are really special and important to our memories as graduates,” she continued.
With this accessibility being the driving force behind their fundraising goals, the students in the grad leadership class brokered a partnership with a local roastery whose goals and values aligned with theirs.
Stick in the Mud is a coffee roaster based out of Sooke which sells some of Greater Victoria’s best and brightest beans while helping to support communities here on the island and where he sources his products from.
“[Stick in the Mud] works really closely with the communities where he gets the beans from,” Marchesan explained.
“We get a fairly good pay-off of how much we, the school, gets to keep for the fundraiser.”
She says that this isn’t the first time that Esquimalt High School has collaborated with Stick in the Mud and it likely won’t be the last based on how much the coffee sale garnered the graduating class of 2023.
For the sale, coffee-drinkers can choose to buy Stick in the Mud’s ‘Tsunami’ medium roast, ‘Yeti’ dark roast, ‘Dark Swallow’ dark blend or the ‘Ripple’ decaf coffee.
In addition to choosing the roast, those buying coffee can choose if they would like the beans pre-ground and how fine or coarse of a grind they want.
All coffees are priced at $21 and they are available online through a simple order form.
Marchesan says that the money raised from this will go directly toward keeping costs down for families so their children can enjoy their final days as high school students.
The deadline to order the coffee through the school is set for December 6th and people will be able to pick up their order following December 15th.
