Fifth graders raise money to feed those in need
By Tracy Ouellette
SLN Staff
It started when 11-year-old Alexandra Olejniczak was sitting in church.
“We were hearing about how many people suffer each day because they’re hungry and people don’t even know about it,” she recalled.
It bothered her so much, she discussed it with her friend Isabel Spinato, a fifth-grade classmate at Prairie View Elementary School in East Troy.
“I always felt really bad about people who don’t have food, too,” Spinato said. “So, I said, ‘Why don’t we do something about it?’”
They came up with the idea to raise money for Heifer International, an organization devoted to ending world hunger that provides animals and other care to people in need around the world. According to www.heifer.org, “Giving an animal is like giving someone a small business, providing wool, milk, eggs and more. Animal donations can provide families a hand up, increasing access to medicine, school, food and a sustainable livelihood.”
The girls had heard of Heifer International during a summer school program on the subject that included the book “Beatrice’s Goat” by Page McBrier. Beatrice’s story reveals the devastating reality of poverty, and that the smallest contribution toward the purchase of a gift animal can drastically improve the lives of the less fortunate all over the world.
After deciding what they wanted to do, the girls realized they were going to need more help, so they talked to another fifth-grade friend, Cordelia Brown.
“We told Cordelia but we didn’t tell Sylas until our first meeting with Mr. Weerts,” Spinato said.
The girls said they drafted Sylas Ohlen into their ranks when they realized they needed a “tech guy” who felt like they did and could help with a possible video.
The next step was to meet with Principal Mark Weerts. The fifth graders made an appointment and sat down with Weerts in early October.
“They came to me,” Weerts said. “It was their idea, they drove it, they promoted it and they collected the money.”
The four students went to work on creating posters and getting the word out to their fellow classmates. They brainstormed slogans for the posters, and being it was around Halloween time, candy became a theme.
“Cows instead of candy,” Spinato said.
“Turkeys instead of Twix,” Brown chimed in.
And they created a talking point list to tell everyone what they were up to.
“We all made a script and read it off to anyone who would listen,” Ohlen said.
Then, over a period of five days, they collected money at the school. The first day was pennies, the second nickels, third day was dimes, fourth day was quarters and the fifth day was dollar bills.
“We had three bins of money,” Brown said.
In all, the students and staff at Prairie View donated $628 for Heifer International.
“Then, they were very savvy with their shopping and placed their Heifer International order on Cyber Monday,” Weerts said. “That way, Heifer matched their donation.
The money raised was used to purchase two gifts of honeybees, two flocks of chicks, four goats, two flocks of hope (chicks, ducks or goslings, depending on the climate), and will send two girls to school.
“They went through the catalog and were very intentional about what they choose to help the most people,” Weerts said.
The kids were pleased with the results of their fundraiser and how much everyone at the school helped. The whole thing took them about six weeks to do, and they are talking about making it an annual tradition.
“We want to help end world hunger,” Ohlen said.
“And my mom said if something is tugging at my heart, it would be a good thing to do,” Olejniczak said.
