Some members of the Pickering Conquest club holding their donation cans for the Chalice fundraiser.

January 10, 2011. Pickering, ON. The Pickering Conquest boys’ club conquered its Advent challenge, raising over $1,026 to donate to Chalice, a Canadian Catholic sponsorship program that helps the needy in developing countries.

The Chalice organization offers a variety of ways to support the poor, including a Christmas catalog from which donors can purchase gifts ranging from educational programs and materials, health care, and community facilities or services to household items, different types of farm animals, and more. The most generous gift in the “animals” category was an entire farmyard of animals, which costs $1,000. This was what the boys decided to set as their Christmas goal. As of this past Thursday, January 6, they met and exceeded their goal by $26.

“At first I thought it was a long shot,” admitted Club President David Wilson, but as the weeks rolled by, the money kept coming in. The 29 club members, most of them between ages 10 and 12, slowly but surely worked toward their goal.

One of the biggest supporters of their project was their pastor, Fr Morosco Lett at Holy Redeemer parish in Pickering.

“He’s been very involved in our Conquest club. It’s a parish-based club, and he comes to as many meetings as he can,” noted Wilson. When some of the club members asked Fr Lett for permission to stand at the back of the church following the Sunday Masses, and he announced their presence from the pulpit after Mass, inviting the parishioners to support their initiative. That Sunday alone, the boys collected $550.

Just before Christmas, the boys had almost reached their goal at close to $900, so the campaign continued into the holidays. Now, only a few days after the feast of the three Magi, the Conquest boys club will be able to bring something as valuable as gold to a developing community: a stable means of livelihood that will multiply wealth and enable further development.

For more information about Conquest, visit the web site at www.conquestclubs.com.