Peyton Wallin uses an electric screwdriver to assemble a birdhouse.
Twelve of the 14 houses Grade 4 student Peyton Wallin built with Vern Megli of W.A. Day school. The birdhouses are donation collection boxes for Fort McMurray.
Peyton Wallin uses an electric screwdriver to assemble a birdhouse.
A Grade 4 student at W.A. Day school in Fort Macleod initiated a fund-raising project to support students at Fort McMurray.
Peyton Wallin, 10, was watching the morning television news earlier this month and witnessed the devastation as a wildfire swept through Fort McMurray.
Peyton arrived at W.A. Day school that morning, wanting to do something to help people in Fort McMurray.
Ideas were shared at the school and the decision was made to build birdhouses to use as donation collection boxes.
“Peyton’s compassion for others has motivated W.A. Day staff to help him meet his goal of helping others,” school child and youth worker Vern Megli said.
Peyton and Megli worked together to build 14 birdhouses.
Since the school is in its temporary location and there is no workroom, they worked in Megli’s garage.
Megli created a template for the birdhouses and the two worked together, measuring and cutting wood and putting the birdhouses together.
A sticker on each birdhouse reads, “From Fort to Fort.”
Country singer Trevor Panczak took one of the birdhouses to a Fort McMurray fund-raiser, where it was sold in an auction.
Another birdhouse is at W.A. Day school’s front desk, and one was delivered Monday to sit on the front counter at The Macleod Gazette.
The school hopes to place the remaining 11 birdhouses at other locations in Fort Macleod.
The birdhouses will remain at those locations until September, when they will be collected and shipped to an elementary school at Fort McMurray.
Once the money is out of the birdhouses, they can easily be transformed into actual homes for birds.
To order a birdhouse, phone W.A. Day school at 403-553-3362.
