A major aspect of the IB Diploma Program is CAS, or creativity, action, and service. This part of the Diploma Program encourages proactive behavior outside of school and student-led community outreach. It pushes students to try new things outside of school and make an impact in their community.

A new organization stemming from CAS is the IB Pizza for Patients program. Created this school year, this organization follows in the footsteps of the football program’s Pizza for Patients idea. The idea is this: a group of IB students organize a night at the University of Minnesota’s Masonic Children’s Hospital to give patients a good meal that isn’t from the hospital cafeteria, and to have fun with the kids using some crafts.

The organization has already made one trip to the hospital this year in late January, and it was a big success! Families were happy to have pizza come to them, and some patients were able to make Valentine’s Day cards, or just draw something fun. The hope was that those patients were able to feel like normal kids just for a little bit.

And this all wouldn’t be possible without the generosity of a few great local businesses and their generous donations. I’d like to thank each of them for their essential donations to the organization: Joey Nova’s for numerous, amazing large pizzas; Cub Foods for lots of fruits and veggies, as well as much needed equipment for distributing the food; Great Harvest for heaps of cookies,Target for miscellaneous food. It’s uplifting to see community businesses be so philanthropic and care for their community!