This sweet new program is encouraging children to do good deeds in the Sault (5 photos)

A new program in Sault Ste. Marie is looking for children who are doing good deeds in the community. 

The Centre for Social Justice and Good Works launched the Sweet Change Good Deeds program Wednesday, with the goal of encouraging children aged 6 to13 to do good works for family, friends, community and the environment. 

The program also comes with its own mascot, Sweet Change the Chocolate Bear, and a soon-to-be-released children’s story book bearing the same name. 

“We’ve been working at it for a year now, so it feels really great,” said Frank Sarlo, who is a board member, past president and co-founder of the Centre for Social Justice and Good Works.  “With COVID, it was hard getting it started, but now we’ve got our story book done, we have our mascot, we have the chocolate all set up for the kids - and we have all the programming and marketing set.” 

Children will be able to submit descriptions of their good deeds by both email and snail mail when the Sweet Change Good Deeds program officially gets underway in mid-September. Another program will begin early next year. 

Those selected as a ‘Sweet Change Good Deeds Hero’ will be invited to awards events in the fall of this year and the spring of next year, where they will be recognized with the following:

• Sweet Change Good Deeds Hero certificate
• Copy of Sweet Change the Chocolate Bear children's book
• Chocolate from Sweet Change
• An opportunity to meet with local heroes and the Sweet Change the Chocolate Bear mascot 
• A chance to receive a $500 gift

Meanwhile, Sarlo hopes the children’s story book centred on good deeds can serve as a fundraiser for the Centre for Social Justice and Good Works. The book, authored by Sarlo along with author and early childhood educator Jennifer Barone, is expected to be printed within the next two or three weeks. 

“We’re going to go to different retailers and ask if we can sell it locally,” said Sarlo. “But the good thing about having a company like FriesenPress, they have 55,000 outlets around the world that do it - so if the book is lucky enough to catch peoples’ imagination, then it will be a great fundraiser for the centre.”

Sarlo credits the work of community stakeholders and sponsors in the Sault that pitched in to make the Sweet Change Good Deeds program a reality. 

“Everybody that I called to help on this project came along, and the centre really talks about creating positive change together, and the ‘together’ is bringing people in and getting them to help,” he said. 

In Sarlo’s mind, the program could potentially help children in Sault Ste. Marie to be good community members. 

“From my perspective, all we’re seeing these days are people talking badly about other people. And that hurts our young people, and I thought it was really important that our young people understand that there’s another side to this, and they’ll get more out of being nice to people than they will with not being nice to people,” he said. “And hopefully, it’ll extend and we can cut down bullying.”

In order to enter, children are asked to provide their name, a description of their good deeds, their email address, home address and phone number. 

Submissions can be sent by email or by regular mail to: 

Sweet Change Good Deeds Program
3 Queen Street East
Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.
P6A 1Y4