York Town News
CRES kids raise $679 for Kenya
By Jennifer L. Saunders
Students in the Coastal Ridge Elementary School Kids Cabinet count the money they raised to support the Kenya School Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving access to education, and the lives of children and families, in Kenya.
Photo by Mary Zane
When students at Coastal Ridge learned about an effort by a dear friend of their art teacher, Mary Zane, to improve schools - and lives - for children in Kenya, they wanted to help.
Representatives from the Coastal Ridge Kids Cabinet, an organization similar to a student council at the high school level, went to each of their classrooms to share their plan: a coin drive to raise money for children in Kenya who attend school in a building without insulation and without proper supplies, without electricity, running water or even a bathroom.
After creating a display complete with a glass jar where their fellow students could donate coins, the Kids Cabinet members gathered in Zane's art room to count the money and roll the coins last Wednesday morning, Jan. 31.
And the results astounded the children as they counted up to $679 to donate to Mary Stusek's Kenya School Project, a nonprofit organization devoted to improving life in Kenya through education and philanthropy.
"We rolled and rolled and rolled coins this morning...until all $679 was rolled," said Alicia Marquis, a CRES fourth-grade teacher and advisor to the Kids Cabinet.
Those funds were much more than the students imagined, she said.
Zane, too, said the excitement of the Kids Cabinet members was palpable as they added the money they had raised with their fellow students.
For Stusek, meanwhile, commenting from her home in Wisconsin, the work of the children was especially heartwarming.
"I am as pleasured by the student response to the Kenyan need as I will be by any money collected," she said, adding, "It is more than heart-warming, it is hopeful."
Back at Coastal Ridge, several third- and fourth-grade members of the Kids Cabinet spoke about why they felt this project was something they should support as a group and as a school.
"It was really important because they don't have a lot," said fourth-grade student Kendall Carr.
Kendall described the photos Zane has shared of the schools in Kenya, and how different life is for children there.
"We raised money for supplies and stuff they need," added third-grader Maeve Campbell. "It was really fun to help."
Maeve and her fellow Kids Cabinet members all agreed it made them feel fortunate to live in a community like York when they realized how different their lives are from children in Kenya.
"It was important that we got to help the kids," said third-grade student Ben MacLean, "and it was fun, as a school, to do. I think it was good. I really feel bad for the kids there."
Fourth-grader Connor Smith agreed.
"I really enjoyed it and I think it will help the people in Kenya," he said.
Stusek echoed the students' words.
As she put it, "I was very impressed by the amount and the effort, but I was equally impressed that children this age have so much empathy for their age-mates who live half a world away."
To learn more about the Kenya School Project, visit www.kenyaschoolproject.org or e-mail info@kenyaschoolproject.org.
