It takes many hands to get community initiatives off the ground and this one may surprise you.

Benton Traudt, Grade Two student at Fireside School, was recognized as a Leader of Tomorrow back in April for his efforts of raising just over $1100 to put towards his school's future playground.

Stating the idea was his own, Benton shares how he did it. "By asking people for bottles and if they didn't have bottles they would give me money."

It took Benton five weeks of pounding the pavement to come up with the huge donation and he says he hit up many places to gather as much as he did. "I actually went to Calgary and a lot of neighbourhoods."

The underlying motive for Benton was to see his school unveil the playground quicker by helping them reach their targeted amount. When asked, all Mrs Cooledge's grade two students shared what they're looking forward to the most at the park. "We won't need to walk to the park, the monkey bars, the swings, a big slide."

Inquiring whether Benton had a goal or an initiative in mind for next year, he gave me an honest answer. "Not really." 

I told the kids I would check-in next year to see if they came up with a cool classroom initiative that would benefit the community as a whole and whether they could work together as a team.

Fireside School will soon be home to one of two inclusive playgrounds which will enable students of all abilities to play together. Regardless of the amount he raised, Benton Traudt's family, friends and fellow Fireside students are pretty proud of his effort.

Benton Traudt's fellow Grade Two classmates.