Fifth-graders turn apples into dough

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

By Christie Koriakin

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-Fifth-grader Gracie Lewis has to help decide what to do with $11,000. She and her classmates at Colter Elementary School raised the money selling apples door-to-door. At about 65 cents an apple, that’s a lot of apples. And after all that hard work, they are just going to give all that money away.

“There are other kids who need the money more than us,” Lewis said. “We know we can make a difference and we want to help.”

And since the fifth-graders put in the legwork, they get to decide where the money will go. Like executives at a venture capital firm, the kids sat back last Friday as a line of nonprofits paraded before them explaining how they would use the money.
An organization called Centre for Children’s Happiness wants to send kids living in garbage dumps in Cambodia to a charity home. The Heifer Foundation wants to make sure a little girl somewhere in the world has clean clothes to wear tomorrow.  The middle school wants to build a school in Sierra Leone.

“It’s quite a bit of money,” said fifth-grade teacher Cathy Parrot, “so we have attracted the attention of lots of different organizations.”

With all the diligence of young businessmen and women, the students bombard the nonprofits with a series of logistical questions.

“How much do you think you will need for supplies? “ asked one. “Will you be using this money for airfare?” inquired another.

But for all their assiduity, they still have the compassion and heart that comes with being a child. After a group of high school students presented their plan to revitalize an impoverished area in Ghana, one kid shouted out “Can I come too?”

For the fifth-graders, the presentations are not just a plea for money, but also an insight into a world unlike their own, a place where some children’s basic needs are not met.

“Here we just throw away our food if we don’t want it,” said 11-year-old Bodi Morris, “but there are some kids who have to eat rotten food from garbage dumps and it’s really sad to see that.”

“This is a life-changing experience for these kids,” said Parrot. “They can’t even believe that some kids live without parents or without food.”

In the end, the students decided to give out the money in varying amounts to each of the six non-profits that applied. The Cush Foundation, which aides the so-called “lost boys” of Sudan, received the largest portion.

The apple fundraiser was established  four years ago for the purpose of raising money for the Cush Foundation. The lost boys were a group of children who were displaced from their families in war-ravaged Southern Sudan.

To help the lost boys, Colter Elementary students ignored the old saying about money not growing on trees and started a successful fundraiser selling Fuji apples. The organizations that receive the proceeds must aide children.  JHW 

Photo by CATHY PARROT
Fifth-grader Paige Asbell hauls apples.

PERMALINK:
Fifth-graders turn apples into dough | Planet JH News Article: General News

Leave a Comment