At schools across the country, students are organizing meals, selling wristbands and donating their time and money so that the Haitian people who were impacted by the earthquake that rocked Haiti last month can survive another day.
They saw the images of toppled homes and hungry children and decided to do what they could to help. In Tallahassee, Fla., three grades worked together to sell baked goods, serve a Haitian lunch and collect supplies at Cornerstone Learning Community.
“One of the reasons why we did this fundraiser was because it would help many people who have broken limbs or they have diseases and things like that, and they might die,” said fifth-grader Noah Wise.
The fourth-graders cooked fried plantains for the Haitian lunch, and collected water, cans, diabetes kits and baby formula, said fifth-grader Peter Sass. The fifth-graders in Jason Flom's class ran the bake sale, made a salad for the meal on Jan. 29, organized posters and created a movie to tell the community about the event.
Haiti Earthquake Fundraiser Student Video from Jason Flom on Vimeo.
“We were thinking about starting with Haitian pictures," Oscar Patterson said.
"Like happy ones," Wilson Abshire added.
"Happy ones and sad ones," Oscar said.
Wilson continued, "And then we would transition to the sad ones so everyone would feel really sad and stuff and feel like they would have to come.”
They created the clip with iMovie, and then Flom posted it on the class blog and e-mailed it to everyone who went to Cornerstone. The eighth-graders helped spread the word by writing a press release, and they cooked the rice and beans, Peter said.
By the end of the day, the students had collected $1,300 to send to the American Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders, said fifth-grader Ross Donaldson.
Two of the teachers in their school are Jamaican and part Jamaican, part Haitian respectively, so that was an added incentive for the students to get involved and make the event a celebration of culture as much as a fundraiser for relief, Flom said. The students created posters to hang around school that had facts about Haiti on them, including what language they spoke and different statistics about the population, Zachary Jackson said.
In Scottsbluff, Neb., high schoolers from Valley Alternative Learning and Transitional School are planning a movie night around Valentine's Day to raise funds that will go to the local chapter of the American Red Cross. A lot of people need help because they don't have much, said senior Nereyda Arellana, and because she has more than them, she wants to do what she can.
About 3 million people lost their food, water and shelter as a result of the damage from the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck the country on Jan. 12.
The scenes of devastation from the earthquake hit close to home for senior Katelyn Estes, who has a three-month old baby and started to cry as she explained why she wanted to raise money for Haitian residents.
“I think it’s important because a lot of the little kids have lost their families, and I have a kid myself, and I know how it would be not to have your kid there and to lose your family," Estes said.
In Toledo, Ohio, seventh-grader Samantha Eshman saw a newspaper article about what had happened in Haiti and took it to school counselor Sarah Hoffman, who runs an after-school support group called Girls Rock at Washington Junior High School. They decided to sell blue wristbands that said "help Haiti heal" and give the money they raised to the American Red Cross.
“I was kind of excited ’cause something that I really wanted to do was actually happening,” Samantha said.
But that's not all. Through a YouTube video that Hoffman created, they inspired the rest of Washington Local Schools to band together. The group's seventh-grade school competed in a battle of the bands with the eighth-grade Jefferson Junior High next door. Together, they sold more than 1,000 wristbands, with Jefferson raising $788.49 and Washington raising $603.70.
Some of the elementary schools and Whitmer High School sold the bands as well. The elementary schools are still going strong and have collected more than $1,000.
At New Milford High School in New Jersey, four different groups have led the school's fundraising efforts.The students in Peer Leadership and the National Honors Society planned a "change for change" campaign to collect coins at school, said sophomore Ryanne Doran. They made buckets, walked around the lunchroom and hallways, and asked for donations to go toward the relief effort in Haiti, which totaled $650.
“When you’re in Peer Leadership, you learn how to deal with problems like Haiti, and you learn how to work well with a group and you learn how to talk well," Ryanne said.
On Jan. 26, the girls' basketball team played rival Cresskill High School and sent $409 in gate receipts and donations from fans to the American Red Cross, said Athletic Director Jerry Perrone. And New Milford wasn't the only school to participate. Many schools in the Bergen County Scholastic League National & Olympic did the same thing after some members of the league posed the idea.
"It was an opportunity to not only play an exciting basketball game, but to shed some light on some things going on around the world,” Perrone said.
Everyone at school was trying to think of ways to help, said senior basketball player Cassidy Holouach, and she thought donating the proceeds from the game was a good idea. Even though her team lost the game, she said "it was a great experience to have everyone come out to support not only the basketball team, but to support the charity we were putting the money toward for Haiti.”
The French Honors Society is selling packs of Hershey kisses up until Valentine's Day, and the funds they raise will go toward Doctors Without Borders and the foster child that they support in Haiti, junior Jessica Milne said. The societies traditionally sell French kisses each year, but this year, all of the money will go to Haiti.
The Community Service Club is partnering with First Congregational Church in River Edge to collect baby and hygiene kits for Haitian survivers through the Church World Service kit program. Between Feb. 22 and March 31, students in the same homeroom will compete against each other to see who can make the most kits, senior Daniel Fontanez said. In each homeroom, the student who donates the most kits will receive a bagel breakfast.
“We know it’s hard for people out there that don’t have the supplies, and since we can help, any little bit helps, even if we don’t get a lot,” Fontanez said. “At least we know that we have an impact on someone’s life, that sort of makes us feel good.”
If your students are impacting Haitian lives, let us know what they're doing in the comments.
Update: Washington Local Schools raised more than $4,500 for the Red Cross Haiti relief fund.
Main photo courtesy of Jason Flom. Left to right: Fifth-graders Abby Stone and Oscar Patterson serve food along with eighth-grader Bo Kiwala at a fundraiser at Cornerstone Learning Community on Jan. 29.
The New Milford High School girls' basketball team photo courtesy of Jerry Perrone.
