PLUMSTED — Students and staff members at the Dr. Gerald H. Woehr Elementary School recently did their part to help earthquake victims in Haiti.
Funds received from the project are being donated to the American Red Cross for Haitian relief in the aftermath of the Jan. 12 earthquake that devastated the Caribbean nation.
“The students created paper Hershey Kisses,” said Principal Bob Burkhardt, who along with Alyse Reed, the school guidance counselor, Jeff Pierro, a fifth-grade teacher, and Theresa Nicholl, a special education teacher, came up with the idea. “This is just another way the staff decided to teach students to give back.”
A student or a member of the faculty who donated at least $1 got to write down a wish for Haiti.
Some of the wishes submitted by students were, “I wish for Haiti to have food and money,” “My wish for Haiti is for everyone to have houses” and “I wish that all people will get the help they need.”
Students and staff members were pleasantly surprised when they ran out of the paper kisses as a result of the generosity of the donors, the principal said.
For a short time no wishes were written, he said. Then a few golden kisses were made for which students had to donate at least $10 to receive one.
Once again they ran out of kisses.
Due to the continued generosity of the students, real Hershey Kisses had to be distributed when a donation was made.
In the end, the school raised a total of $3,064.89 and a check was presented at an assembly program on April 6 to Cleo Hendrickson, a representative of the American Red Cross.