Note: The information in brackets describes the audio and visual content of the video that is not dialogue or narration.

[Background music]

[Aerial view of L'Odyssée School]

[On-screen text: L'Odyssée culinaire Project]

[On-screen text: Ms. Maude, School Principal]

Ms. Maude: Here at school, can we also have a positive impact, then develop healthy habits and then allow students to get involved in this project too? That's how the project came about.

[The students are cooking.]

Emerick (participant): We're like a little convenience store for those who have forgotten or have dropped their lunch.

[The participating students and project leads are wearing aprons and standing in front of the kitchen.]

Emerick: And now, we're about ten, even twenty or so on the project.

Ms. Valérie: The Odyssée culinaire project integrated all kinds of students, who also had to learn to collaborate and work as a team.

[The students are working in the kitchen.]

Ms. Valérie: The kitchen is small, but large at the same time so you have to share the workspace, you have to divide the tasks.

Jérémy (participant): I was proud to take part in this project. It allowed me to develop my creativity and, above all, teamwork.

[The students are working in the kitchen.]

Emerick: What I really liked, it's the involvement of others who have joined us, it's to get more people involved in the project, then really cooking and selling things for the students.

Ms. Maude: Of course, in projects like these, as soon as the students have the chance to get involved at school, it can lead to more attendance at school, and it can lead to more positive experiences. When you have an impact on the sense of belonging, it automatically has an impact on success.

Laurianne (participant): What I liked, is to get to know other people, to learn how to do than just pasta and not spending my lunches on my phone.

Ms. Valérie: What I found most important, for me, it's the connection, the connection with the children.

[Ms. Valérie is cooking with a student.]

Ms. Valérie (special educator): When there is a connection with the child, whatever the instructions after or the request we have to make, when we have to set limits or consequences, it's much easier for us.

[The students are cleaning the kitchen and serving a salad.]

Eureka (participant): It's good to talk to other people and learn new things.

Ms. Maude: I would say to colleagues who would like to apply to the Desjardins Foundation Prize that it's a very simple application to complete. All we have to do is present our project, demonstrate the positive impacts it can have, and it gives you access to funds that would otherwise be impossible to obtain, which enables a truly positive impact on the life of our community.

[The students are decorating cookies.]

Ms. Valérie: No one could have believed that we would have gone so far in this project.

[Ms. Valérie is smiling and working in the kitchen.]

Ms. Valérie: I want to thank everyone for giving their 110% to this project.

Emerick: Thanks to the Foundation for donating these funds.

Participants and project leads: L'Odyssée culinaire!

[Aerial view of L'Odyssée School]

[On-screen text: Call for applications, October 1 to 31 every year – Details and submission: desjardinsfoundation.com/prizes]

[On-screen logo: Desjardins Foundation logo]

[Background music: Desjardins jingle]

End of transcript

Note: The information in brackets describes the audio and visual content of the video that is not dialogue or narration.

[Background music]

[Aerial view of Pierre-de-Coubertin elementary school]

[On-screen text: Enabling inspiring initiatives with the Desjardins Foundation Prize]

[On-screen text: Puppet Project]

[A puppet theatre is in the background with a swinging red puppet.]

[On-screen text: Ms. Louise, Teacher]

Ms. Louise: This year, we decided to do a project on puppets.

Student 1: My project was to do a puppet show, and in the end, we performed in front of the parents.

[The students make puppets and play with them behind a puppet theatre.]

Student 2: My puppet's name is Mimou. Her favourite activity is drawing her carrot.

[The students play with the puppets.]

Student 3: The thing I liked the most was making up stories.

[Three puppets appear in the puppet theatre.]

Ms. Louise: The prize we received from Desjardins allowed us to buy materials, to buy more to make our puppets. It allowed us to build the theatres.

Student 3: I felt proud of myself, showing my work and that's it.

Student 4: She's a princess, and then I felt happy when I was done because I fought my embarrassment in front of the parents.

Student 2: I was really looking forward to making my puppet and I was also looking forward to my puppet show. It helped me to collaborate with others.

Ms. Louise: With the help of their sponsors, they persevered and learned to speak louder. They learned a lot and I could see their motivation.

[On-screen text: Mickael, sponsor]

Mickael: I really had the role of a real sponsor.

[On-screen text: Jeannie, sponsor]

Jeannie: The puppet show they had done helped me to see their progress and really make them less self-conscious in front of everyone.

[On-screen text: Ms. Nadine, School Principal]

Ms. Nadine: The difference it makes for children to experience a project like this is to experience something amazing, something they're not used to, something out of the ordinary.

[The students make puppets.]

[On-screen text: Sarah, sponsor]

Sarah: This project is fantastic because when you make puppets, it helps them have fun while practising.

Ms. Louise: We couldn't have done so well without the Desjardins Prize. It really helped us.

Ms. Nadine: What the teacher wants is for the child to develop to the best of his or her ability. And when you take on a project of this scale, you know that the children are going to be fully on board, that they're going to be motivated and committed, and that it's going to create unforgettable memories in their minds.

Ms. Louise: I don't know why I waited so many years. But now I'm really proud to have done it. It's really been worth it, with all the results we've seen today. So, I strongly encourage you. The children come out of this experience as winners.

Ms. Nadine: A huge thank you to the Desjardins Foundation for your support. You make a difference in my community.

[Aerial view of Pierre-de-Coubertin elementary school]

[On-screen text: Call for applications, October 1 to 31 every year – Details and submission: desjardinsfoundation.com/prizes]

[On-screen logo: Desjardins Foundation logo]

[Background music: Desjardins jingle]

End of transcript

Note: The information in brackets describes the audio and visual content of the video that is not dialogue or narration.

[Background music]

[Aerial view of Joseph-Hermas-Leclerc school]

[On-screen text: Enabling inspiring initiatives with the Desjardins Foundation Prize]

[On-screen text: Mia, Environment Option student]

Mia: The Food Landscaping project that we did this year in the environment option. Basically, we went outside the school to plant plants that hadn't been maintained in quite a while.

[A group of students plants strawberry plants]

Mia: We planted strawberries, little fir trees, really lots of species.

[On-screen text: Corinne Dion, Teacher, Joseph-Hermas-Leclerc school]

Corinne Dion: The idea behind this is to do something edible to flower and revegetate the area in front of the school.

[On-screen text: Food Landscaping project]

[Aerial view of the green space in front of the Joseph-Hermas-Leclerc school]

[On-screen text: Anne-Marie Ménard, School Principal, Joseph-Hermas-Leclerc school]

Anne-Marie Ménard: It gives students a new perspective on the school's Food Landscaping project.

[A group of students is walking through the school corridors with gardening equipment.]

Anne-Marie Ménard: What it does, is that it brings life pretty much everywhere.

Corinne Dion: The idea came to me last fall, when we had the school's 50th anniversary.

[Shots of the school crest, white statues in front of the "INCREDIBLE since 1972" commemorative wall]

Corinne Dion: Then, the big problem in front of the school was that the flowerbeds or planters or green spaces were neglected.

[Corinne Dion is in a flowerbed, in front of a "Congratulations to the graduates" banner, gardening with students.]

Anne-Marie Ménard: What the Desjardins Foundation means to us at school is all the creativity it enables.

[Shots of various art projects throughout the school]

Anne-Marie Ménard: The Foundation supports our projects in a way that's different from what we usually have, from what we can usually afford.

[On-screen text: Sarah, sponsor]

[Corinne Dion gives instructions to a group of students while handling gardening equipment.]

Anne-Marie Ménard: As such, it allows teachers to go in all directions and be extremely creative without limits.

Corinne Dion: Since my students in Environment Option are the ones who did this, it gives them an experience.

[Two students high-five while others are working in the flowerbed.]

Corinne Dion: The Desjardins Foundation Prize gave me the money to do the project with the botanist I consulted for expertise in edible plant landscaping.

[The students are working in the flowerbed.]

[Aerial view of a group of students walking near the green spaces in front of the school]

Anne-Marie Ménard: Food landscaping is directly linked to the course she's set up, the Environmental Workshop.

[The students are working in the flowerbed.]

Anne-Marie Ménard: And the students see firsthand what we can do well, what we can do easily at home, because yes, we have structures at school, but how we can make at home life more joyful, simply more pleasant, that's really what she allows them to experience.

[A group of students is outside listening to explanations from the teacher in charge]

Mia: In the project, what really made me proud was the fact that I'd never done any gardening before.

[Mia and Satia are preparing a space to plant a crop.]

Mia: To be able to apply myself, to do the work well right away and to have beautiful results at the end, because since I'd never done it, I couldn't know what it would turn out like.

[Aerial view of the Joseph-Hermas-Leclerc school]

Anne-Marie Ménard: Respecting the environment is an integral part of what we teach our students. And the Desjardins Foundation helps us to be good citizens for the future.

[The students are working in the flowerbed.]

[On-screen text: François-Xavier, Environment Option student]

François-Xavier: What I liked most about the project was the time we spent in action.

[On-screen text: Satia, Environment Option student]

Satia (Environment Option student): We're having a good time, we're outside, in the sun, we talk with our friends, we plant plants. It's fun, that's what it is.

[A group of students follows Corinne Dion outside towards the school's green spaces.]

Anne-Marie Ménard: Every time I'm asked if submitting a project to the Desjardins Foundation is worth it, I always say "yes" straight away, because it supports us on a daily basis, and that's good for the students and teachers. You can work little miracles with that little extra, and it's really like the "icing on the cake" when we receive the funding approval. So, many thanks to the Desjardins Foundation.

Satia, François-Xavier and Mia: Thank you!

[Aerial view of Joseph-Hermas-Leclerc school]

[On-screen text: Call for applications, October 1 to 31 every year – Details and submission: desjardinsfoundation.com/prizes]

[On-screen logo: Desjardins Foundation logo]

[Background music: Desjardins jingle]

End of transcript

Note: The information in brackets describes the audio and visual content of the video that is not dialogue or narration.

[Background music]

[A group of students is holding a blanket and looking at the camera.]

[Students are writing their names on a production clapperboard.]

Student 1: We wanted to do something kind.

Student 2: Because we're helping other people that don't have these things.

Student 3: When I went to school, I felt like really good because I wanted to make a difference in the world.

Mme J. Bell: We're a caring, a caring group of people.

[We see students using the clapperboard to clap.]

[We see the front of the school.]

[On-screen text: Give life to motivating initiatives with the Desjardins Foundation Prizes.]

[On-screen text: Mme J. Bell, Teacher, Grade 3/4, Cobden District Public School.]

[Mme J. Bell speaks to the camera.]

Mme J. Bell: So, our beautiful blankets for a cause project has kept us busy for the last few weeks.

[Mrs. S. Wylie speaks to the camera.]

[On-screen text: Mrs. S. Wylie, Teacher, Grade 3, Cobden District Public School.]

Mrs. S. Wylie: We made a bucket list, at the very beginning of the year, of all the ways we could make a difference in the world. We had some students that were interested in learning how to finger knit.

[Students are crocheting.]

Mrs. S. Wylie: It progressed to crocheting.

Student 2: Most of us didn't know how to crochet.

[We see another student giving testimony.]

Student 1: At the first of the project I was wondering how I would do it and I felt a little bit nervous

[Samantha Noack speaks to the camera.]

[On-screen text: Samantha Noack, Interim Principal, Cobden District Public School.]

Samantha Noack: My involvement has been, proud onlooker. The best part has been to hear firsthand from the kids what it is they're working on.

[Students are crocheting.]

Mrs. S. Wylie: So the students said that if we had the mat—we had the money to buy the materials then we could start this project.

Mme J. Bell: I taught the students how to do those first couple of stitches.

Student 2: When Madame Bell started us with 30 stitches, and then we started to go into the loops and then...

Student 4: You have to go like this and then rip the rows and turn around. That was the hard part.

Mrs. S. Wylie: And they wanted to make blankets because they knew that there could be a variety of places that they could donate them to.

[We see crafts on the classroom wall promoting kindness.]

Samantha Noack: And for that they selected Crescent Care which is a retirement community here in Cobden.

Mrs. S. Wylie: So, originally, I received an email from the Desjardins Foundation, and it was an opportunity to apply for a grant.

Mme J. Bell: We would not have been able to afford the wool, the crochet hooks.

[Students are crocheting.]

Student 4: First thing I knit was a square.

Student 3: But the first time I did it, it wasn't like a blanket, it turned into like a U. So I had to like restart.

Student 2: I used the pink and white one because it's the softest and there was no more gray.

Student 1: I would wanna do it again. And I feel like I was a pro at it.

[The student holds the blanket with her friend.]

Mme J. Bell: I would say that the most important thing they learned was to keep trying.

Student 3: The most important thing I learned was to never give up.

Mrs. S. Wylie: I would tell anybody who's on the verge of starting a project to search up the Desjardins Foundation and seek out the opportunities because it's easy to apply.

[The students are crocheting.]

Mme J. Bell: And to be able to make a difference in your community. It's been a great learning experience for us as educators, as well as for our students.

Student 5: Thank you for helping us.

Student 2: Thank you for letting us having balls of yarn so we can make blankets 'cause I like helping people out.

Student 1: Thank you for, like, letting me learn a new skill.

[The students are waving, surrounded by yarn and blankets.]

[On-screen text: Application period yearly from October 1 to October 31 – Details and form at desjardinsfoundation.com/prizes]

[On-screen logo: Desjardins logo]

[Background music: Desjardins jingle]

End of transcript