A little spare change goes a long way

Lending a hand in the schools

Over the past 30 years, two major groups have spurred an increase in volunteering across America: adults ages 45 and older, and, perhaps surprisingly, teenagers ages 16 to19. “Youth who engage in volunteering and other positive activities are more likely to be successful at school and to avoid risky behaviors,” reported the Corporation for National and Community Service, a federal agency established in 1993, in December 2006. Good news for schools and communities that encourage students to undertake general doing-good-unto-others not just during April, National Volunteer Month, but year-round and at any age.
    The student council at Cordelia Hills Elementary School has “made it their mission to focus on community service,” says Principal Louise Bevilaqua. “We really want to build a positive school community and see community service as contributing to that vision.”
    “The student council votes on what projects they want to be involved in,” says Art Sullivan, a fifth-grade teacher who co-advises the group of 25 to 30 fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade students with Mike Carroll, a fourth-grade teacher. By winter 2007, the council had been involved in three community service projects. One was the KCRA 3 Kids Can Food Drive, a program run in connection with Northern California county food banks, from which the school raised 1,528 pounds of food. Another seasonally themed project was a coat drive which collected around 100 coats for Dixon’s Toys for Tots program.
    The last program for 2007 was CureFinders, a fundraiser for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, chosen because of a Cordelia Hills kindergarten student with the disease. The students raised a total of $1,560.27 through a simple coin collection via donations of spare change or any larger sum their classmates were willing to give. The funds were presented to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation of Northern California at a school assembly on Dec. 19. In a generous touch, the BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse chain, a national partner to the CureFinders program, donated $1,000 (and a pizza party to the class that raised the most money) to the school in recognition of its work. “It’s a win/win situation!” Sullivan says.
    Community activism doesn’t start or end with the winter holidays. In February, the council jumped into another fundraiser: Pennies for Patients, which raises money for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Having conducted this fundraiser before with another school, Sullivan has some helpful advice for the kids: Have a dolly handy. “We had one of those big plastic Coke bottles halfway filled,” he laughs, “and I couldn’t move it. Coins are pretty heavy!”

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