Queen Elizabeth Secondary students clean up grounds for Love Where You Live campaign

Students at Queen Elizabeth Secondary are pitching in to clean up the school grounds on Wednesday as part of the City of Surrey’s Love Where You Live campaign.

More than 80 members of the school’s Student Ambassadors club signed up for the campaign, a community initiative to encourage residents to keep Surrey beautiful and clean. The students showed school pride by spending part of the morning picking up garbage on the campus and along King George Boulevard.

“Community engagement is so important for students – it provides them with the opportunity to become active members of their community and have a lasting, positive impact on our city,” said Laurie Larsen, Chair of the Surrey Board of Education. “Thank you for your leadership and for your commitment to keeping our city beautiful.”

“What I really love about this group is these students are genuinely enthusiastic about helping out,” said principal Graham Magnusson. “I asked students if they want to be a part of this and within two minutes, I got 50 responses saying, ‘Yeah!’ They’re not looking for extras or recognition, they just like being involved.”

The Student Ambassadors club began last year, sparked by an interaction with a former student who attended the school decades ago.

“I was contacted by the family of a local senior who was a QE student in 1940,” said Magnusson. “She couldn’t graduate because she had to go to work, so she left in Grade 10 or 11, but her family asked if she could come in for a tour.

“We had a little graduation ceremony and certificate for her, and we had 40 kids sign up to support that event, and that’s how the ambassadors started.”

Since then, the club has grown to 120 students from Grades 8 to 12, who have volunteered their time and efforts for countless school events and tasks such as parent teacher conferences and newcomer evenings.

“They are the kindest and most compassionate students you could imagine,” said Magnusson. “I’m always blown away by their willingness to help.”

While Wednesday’s event is one of the last for this season of the Love Where You Live campaign, Magnusson said he and the students are looking forward to  continuing to help with cleaning up the neighbourhood.

“I know that down the road, without any city fanfare or district recognition or attention, I could get the same response from these students,” he said. “If we ask for their help, they respond.”