From tooth fairy money to allowances, area students raise $14,400 for relief efforts.
By: Melissa Hayes
Students held bake sales, donated their allowances and even brought in tooth fairy money and when all the fund-raising proceeds had been tallied, the students of Monmouth Junction, Constable and Cambridge schools raised roughly $14,400 to help the survivors of the tsunami.
Shortly after the Dec. 26 earthquake in the Indian Ocean caused huge waves that killed more than 226,0000 people in 11 Southeast Asia and African countries, several student-initiated campaigns were launched to raise money for survivors.
The peer mediators at Cambridge school met with their advisers, Debbie Armento and Judy McCormick, to brainstorm ways to help the relief efforts and decided to launch a campaign urging kids to donate money they earned.
"We wanted to support the tsunami fund, but we didn’t want it to be people’s parents. We wanted it to be from one kid to another kid," said fifth-grader Samantha Haveson, 10.
The kids came up with the campaign "Kids Helping Kids: Help the Tsunami Kids Smile Again."
Over the course of two days last week, the group raised more than $1,600 for UNICEF.
The advisers said students have been coming up to them all week sharing their stories of what they did to earn the money they donated.
"My buddy said she helped her mom put the clothes away and helped do the dishes," said fifth-grader Ahna Lanfranchi, 10. "Her mom offered to give her money and she said, ‘No don’t give me money, I want to earn it.’ "
Ms. Armento said one student lost her very first tooth and donated her tooth fairy money.
"These stories go on and on. We were so amazed that these children wanted to tell us how they earned their money," she said.
Fifth-grader Kylie Plummer, 10, said they collected money in the cafeteria so students could donate their change from lunch. They also visited the kindergarten classrooms, where the kindergarten classes eat lunch.
Kylie said that in addition to donating money, she brought school supplies in for a collection drive Community Education was conducting during it’s after school program.
Ms. McCormick said the school’s donations will help the tsunami victims, but it also taught students a valuable lesson.
"It was to help them, but it was also to make them feel they’re helping them," she said.
Ahna said she was glad to help.
"I felt really happy because we were helping for a good cause. I want to help kids, they don’t have what we have," she said.
Samantha agreed with Ahna, adding that a lot of children lost more than material items.
"Some kids lost their parents," she said.
She said donating to the tsunami relief efforts makes her want to donate in the future.
"When we get older we can start putting our money in more and more funds," Samantha said.
Constable school found multiple ways to collect money over the past few weeks.
It all began when a member of the student council came up with the idea to donate $1 for every student in the school, teacher Jennifer Dinardi said. From there the initial $370 grew into $8,860.
Students were sent home with pledge forms, Ms. Dinardi said.
"They pledged to do chores to earn money," she said.
For each chore a student did they filled out a form and brought it to school. All of the strips of paper were turned into a chain link that is displayed around the school.
Some students sold brownies and were able to raise $135, she said.
In addition, during the weeks of Jan. 10 and 17, teachers were given the option to pay $2 a day and dress down for school, Ms. Dinardi said.
"It’s been a whole school event," Ms. Dinardi said.
In the end the students raised $4,430 and an anonymous parent matched that amount with a personal donation.
The money also will be donated to UNICEF.
Over at Monmouth Junction, two fund-raising efforts were run last week by two students.
Second-grader Gabriella Pidick, 7, approached her mother, Dana, the day after the tsunami hit and asked, "Mommy what can we do?" Ms. Pidick said.
Ms. Pidick said she and Gabriella spoke with Principal Janis Bozowski about sending a letter home to parents asking them to donate.
"It took me five minutes to get it together," she said. "For five minutes of someone’s effort a lot of money was made."
Through Gabriella and her mother’s efforts, parents and school community members donated almost $3,000. The money will go to UNICEF.
Gabriella said she just wanted to help and was glad it went so well.
"I feel great about it," she said.
"I saw pictures on the news and I thought it was really bad that they had to go through it. We’re raising a lot of money and we’re just trying to make it all better for them."
Fifth-grader Aakash Hathi said he also learned of the tsunami from watching the news and thought about having a bake sale.
"I saw it on TV and thought, since we did something like this before, why can’t we do a bake sale or something," he said.
Aakash’s family donated money and clothing through Durga Mandir, a Hindu temple in South Brunswick. He asked his dad to speak to his teacher about doing something at the school, and his teacher, Vanessa Villegas, was more than happy to help out.
The fifth-graders organized a bake sale and brought trays of cookies, cupcakes and other sweets which were donated by their parents to classrooms throughout the building between 10 and 11 a.m. during the end of last week.
Many of the student’s parents also volunteered to help organize the baked goods and escort groups of students throughout the building during the sale, which raised $940 for the Red Cross.
"We sent home a flyer explaining there was a minimum donation of 25-cents and that we weren’t giving change," Ms. Villegas said. "We got $20s. We got very generous donations."
Greenbrook School also is collecting money for tsunami relief. Containers were placed in each classroom shortly after winter break and will remain there until Valentine’s Day.
"The money will be donated to the Triple Gem Society, an organization founded by a Buddhist monk, Bhante Wimala, who is from Sri Lanka. He is in the disaster area using his boundless energy to help the victims," said Jeanne Grzelak, PTO publicity chairperson. "One hundred percent of the monies collected by his organization will go to those in need."

