San Miguel students from both the Back of the Yards and Gary Comer Campus have been working tirelessly on school-wide fundraising campaigns to raise money for aid relief in Haiti.

At the Back of the Yards Campus, fundraising efforts started with a bake sale, at the suggestion of the 7th grade students.  After watching footage of the earthquake on YouTube, the students began to have a better understanding of the severity of the situation and enthusiastically volunteered to bring in baked goods from home, raising almost $200.

“One student said to me excitedly as we were cleaning up after the bake sale, ‘I've never done anything like this before!’  It was obvious that he was energized by helping others. The students want to know when we can do something else to raise more money,” says Kristina Anderson, 7th grade teacher.

Subsequently, more activities have been planned to continue fundraising, including a movie night, a Valentine’s Day candy-gram sale, Coin Wars, where each classroom competes to raise the most money by dropping change and bills into a bucket, a Friday dress-down day, a dodgeball tournament, and a spirit week, all with the goal of raising money for Haiti relief.  The students have responded wholeheartedly, excited to do whatever they can to help. 

“In raising money for the people of Haiti, I believe the students are able to see beyond their own reality for a moment and realize there are people who have greater struggles than they do. I think it gives the students a sense of pride and dignity in knowing that they can make a small difference in the life of someone else,” says Ms. Anderson. 

Since these additional fundraising activities have taken place, the campus has raised well over $1,000!

“We are helping them because if it were us, we would want to be helped too” says Victor Medina, 8th grade.

6th grade teacher, John Kennedy-Ferrell, explained how his class learned about the country of Haiti and discussed some of the reasons why this earthquake was so devastating.  “On Martin Luther King Day, we listened to Reverend King’s speech, On the Mountaintop, where he talks about the decision that the Good Samaritan made to help the man in need along the side of the road. After discussing the speech, we talked about the people who are in need in today's world, and they were able to identify that the people of Haiti were in the most need.”

John has a personal connection to this disaster as his sister-in-law Cara and her husband, Pepe, who is Haitian, work for an organization called Beyond Borders, which helps to protect children living in situations of servitude in Haiti and are working intensely in the aftermath of this disaster.

"Students in San Miguel have responded to the crisis in Haiti because we are all brothers and sisters and we must help each other out," says Carolina Villa, 8th grade.

The Gary Comer Campus has also been working hard to learn about the current situation in Haiti and to assist with humanitarian aid.  In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, the school wanted to do something to raise funds quickly.  A dress-down day was a responsive and quick way to fundraise, allowing students to dress out of uniform in exchange for a donation.   According to Assistant Principal, Kathy Donohue, “It is a quick way to raise funds, and the kids came through immediately, raising over $200!”  However, the school wanted to take an opportunity to do something that was more thoughtful, and that would help the students to think critically about what was happening in Haiti and why.

The 7th grade took the lead, researching Haiti, learning what life was like before the earthquake and what it has been like since.  During the school’s weekly assembly, they presented what they learned to the whole student body and introduced the “Pennies for Haiti” campaign.  The campaign lasted for two weeks and raised $836.74!  Along with various other fundraising activities, the Gary Comer Campus raised $1,044!

In order to decide how to donate these funds, the students chose between three different worthy charities doing work in Haiti:  The American Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, or the Yele Foundation.  The 7th grade took the lead again, researching the charities and presenting the options to their families before a vote was taken.  Principal Caprice Smalley explained that “we decided to give our money to Yele Foundation because of the Foundation's association with Wyclef Jean.  He is from Haiti, and his personal connection to the disaster was something the kids wanted to support.  Also, the Yele Foundation supports educational pursuits, in addition the humanitarian aid and the students liked the idea that their pennies would be helping children.”

“We are so proud of the kids who took initiative to get this going,” says Assistant Principal Donohue.  “They saw other people in pain and wanted to do whatever they could to alleviate that.  ‘Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.’”

When the scale of the disaster became clear, the students on both campuses rallied to do what they could to help.  They felt called to action and donated quite literally, penny by penny, to raise over $2,000 for Haiti.  The students and their families may not be able to contribute large donations to the organizations in need, but as 7th grader, Mario Garcia says “A little help can make a big difference."