Finishing Strong: Round Square Committee Wraps Up Fall Projects

The Round Square Senior School Service + Leadership Committee, co-chaired this past month by Grade 12 students Hasmitha and Janey, recently focused on an often overlooked part of service: the disciplined, often unglamorous, act of wrapping up. While the excitement of launching major initiatives like a Winter Market or a Hygiene Drive captures attention, our last meeting of 2025 on the rainy last Wednesday before Winter Break demonstrated that the true test of leadership lies in what happens after the event.

The core challenge for any group is not just starting a project, but closing the loop. This committee of Grade 9 to 12 students dedicated their final agenda to tying up loose ends to ensure our projects were completed properly:

• Winter Market: The detailed work of money counting, sending thank you cards, and drafting future recommendations. $800 was raised for Island Kids Cancer Association.
• Winter Care Packages: The essential logistics of delivery plans, debrief and review (including a celebratory “show and tell”). Three boxes of lovely crafts and cards were made to cheer up the Victoria Chinatown Care Centre.
• Hygiene Drive: A full debrief and shout-outs, ensuring the project’s impact is understood and recorded. Over 5 large bins of personal care items to be delivered tomorrow to Our Place by Lucy and her parents. 

These “wrap-up” items are crucial. They ensure financial integrity, provide essential feedback for future efforts, and guarantee that promises made to community partners are fully honoured. Without this diligence, even the most successful campaigns leave behind administrative headaches and incomplete records.

This willingness to follow through, from meticulously checking with Finance to making deliveries in bad weather, is the heart of true leadership. It’s the difference between an idea and a completed mission. 

By focusing on this process of closure, the committee has cleared the deck, allowing them to responsibly look ahead to future campaigns, including brainstorming new ideas for January, and prepping for February’s Flowergrams. Their experience proves that the challenge of leadership isn’t just about dreaming big: it’s the discipline to finish small.