It is always encouraging to know that when a major disaster, or even a minor one, hits some part of the world that is familiar to them, Marion County students usually respond in some way to do their small part in helping out.
Just like their older peers, youngsters seem more than willing to assist on a project to bring assistance to people in need‚ whether that help will go to people in their own state or people halfway around the world.
And even though something like the Haitian earthquake may seem to be too enormous to make a difference, it’s not. Help is always appreciated, whether coming from a Marion County school or the Red Cross. Often the Red Cross served as a conduit in getting the help to a needed country. It should give everyone a good feeling to know that they have helped. It will take many months and perhaps years for the residents of Haiti to get back on their feet.
East Fairmont High School created Hats for Haiti. Every student who donated $1 or more to the Haitian relief fund could wear a favorite hat to school on a designated day. And the school also had a collection box at its home basketball games that week for people to donate money. Around $2,000 was raised without much extra effort. Amazing!
Barrackville School held a “Hearts for Haiti” campaign — with the plan developed by the faculty members. Each donation, regardless of size, was represented by a blue heart with the donor’s name. The hearts are displayed in the teacher’s rooms and the money from the students is collected by the teachers.
Fairview students were on the ball also. They held a competition among classes to see which one could raise the most money.
In addition to recognizing their efforts of pooling resources together to make a significant contribution directly to the relief effort in Haiti, Red Cross Development Director Rob Johnson sent the Fairview school a letter saying that the “students’ leadership in raising funds in response to the tragedy shows the community as well as those outside of our local community — how generous we can be when people are hit with a tragedy of this magnitude.”
That was a nice letter and it was in response to contributions totaling $808.54 that will go for food, water, medical supplies and treatment for families recovering from the quake.
West Fairmont Middle School’s Multicultural Club is campaigning for jeans. The Aeropostale company will match the first 100,000 pair of “gently worn, clean jeans” collected from WFMS, and many other schools around the nation. In turn, 200,000 pair of jeans will be donated to the earthquake victims in Haiti. And the Junior Science Honorary and cheerleaders from WFMS are sponsoring a dinner at the school with proceeds to go to Haitian relief efforts.
The East Park Boys and Girls Club was hoping to have raised $1,000 for the Haitian relief fund by today. These students have done a great job of raising money. And don’t forget the leadership classes at the Barnes Alternative Learning Center, who have put together health kits for the Haitian residents.
Those are just a few of the many examples of children opening their hearts and helping out other children and families — strangers they’ll never have a chance to meet but who they can relate to. We know numerous other county and area schools have already or will be doing similar projects to help the Haitian relief efforts.
Taking part in these efforts should help the students involved gain a good feeling of knowing they have helped people in a major tragedy — even though these people may be more than 1,000 miles from Marion County.
Opinion
Students show passion to help in response to Haitian quake
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