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When her sixth-grade teacher started a fundraiser for earthquake survivors in Haiti, 11-year-old Crystal Camps decided to donate money from her own allowance.
“It was sad they got in an earthquake,” she said of the Jan. 12 7.0 magnitude disaster. “It was terrible, awful.”
Dolores Daniels, who has been teaching at the Walter G. Smith Elementary School, 1900 Wharton St., for 19 years, initiated a drive for the Haitian community during which students, their families and faculty surpassed her expectations by more than doubling the targeted $500. Daniels led the effort, but the school community’s outpouring helped the grand total skyrocket to $1,115, with an extra $10 donated past the Feb. 24 deadline.
“I’m so happy, I don’t know what to do,” she said of the first-time effort. “I’m busting with pride.”
After learning about the tragedy, Daniels said she felt “great concern for the [Haitian] community.”
She brought up the subject in class, and talked with the students about how they could make a difference.
“While discussing this terrible thing in the classroom, we decided almost immediately that we wanted to help,” she said. “Donations from the students seemed to be the best way.”
Daniels, who hails from Maryland but has lived on the 2000 block of Reed Street for 35 years, said she asked each student to donate $1 over the course of 10 days from their own pockets. The check is being sent to the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund.
“I felt that if we encouraged the students to use their allowance and snack money to contribute, then it would be more meaningful,” she said.
The teacher tried to explain the hardship in the Haitian community by relating the story directly to her students.
“I told them, there are children like you who have lost everything,” Daniels said.
For 10 school days, Daniels sent envelopes out to classrooms to collect donations from students and teachers. She even monitored the progress with that familiar goal-setting icon — a giant red wall thermometer.
Students found creative ways to gather every last cent they could for the drive.
“They’re really into this,” Daniels said. “Children came in with handfuls of pennies.”
One came in with 107 coins in a lunch bag, and another gave a second contribution because he made some extra cash shoveling snow, the teacher said. Students also scoured the floor for any precious loose change that would help that red line climb higher.
Sixth-grade Class President Xavier Brown, 11, said he recognized the flood of altruism the earthquake elicited from the world and thought the students should be a part of it.
“When we heard about it, we decided we should help. Everyone else was helping,” he said.
Siani Jackson, 12, said she spared some money from her piggy bank. Her explanation for wanting to help Haiti was simply, “because they need it.”
Another of Daniels’ students reasoned people in the U.S. would want to be treated the same way had they lived through a natural disaster.
“If it was us, they would have helped us,” Abmeen Autrey, 11, said.
Donations from faculty helped the drive become even more successful. Everyone from teachers to lunchroom staff pitched in, Daniels said. A number of teachers gave close to $100 and one said she would match the amount her class gave. With a typical class size of 17 to 20 students and some half as large, Daniels said the teachers’ generosity was obvious.
“If I received $58 from a class, I’d know the kids didn’t do all of it,” she said.
To raise awareness of the fundraiser, Daniels sent a letter home to parents signed by the class president, the principal and herself explaining her desire to aid the Haitian community. In one instance, she said she received a note accompanied by a donation from a parent who smokes. Her note read, “I’m not only helping Haiti, I’m helping myself,” because the money she could have used to buy cigarettes went toward providing relief to earthquake survivors, Daniels said.
Part of the fundraiser, which ran from Feb. 4 to 24, coincided with the area’s wave of winter weather. Daniels said she was worried about whether she and her students would be able to reach their goal. “I was concerned because that first full week, we only had school on Tuesday,” she said.
The unusually snowy month was not going to sabotage her goal. After talking to the principal, she extended the collection to ensure it would last 10 school days.
“She came to ask, but I wouldn’t have refused her to extend it,” Principal Robert L. Frazier said. “I think it’s wonderful the amount of support the program has been able to get from students, parents and community members.”
He added the school district supports and encourages fundraising activity for the Haitian community during its time of need.
Daniels said she noticed the wave of empathy the fundraiser elicited from Smith students.
“As a teacher you hear all the time the negative things about students,” she said. “They don’t know these people, but they know of their pain and suffering.”
Though it may be difficult for young people to fully grasp the conditions in which the earthquake survivors are living, Daniels said she believes a little direction helps motivate them to take action to help others who are less fortunate.
“Children will step up to the plate if you guide them that way,” she said.
The school plans to continue organizing relief efforts for Haiti. For its next project, which Daniels is also involved in, Smith is working with state Rep. Kenyetta Johnson to collect water and canned goods to send to the recovering nation.
“I already have a full box that my students brought as soon as I told them what we would be doing,” Daniels said.
During Tuesday’s class, the teacher said she and her students discussed the earthquake that hit Chile over the weekend.
“I informed them it was twice as hard as Haiti’s but we talked about why there was not quite as much damage,” she said.
Daniels said she plans on following the story and coordinating a similar effort to aid that the country after the school’s food and water drive for Haiti.
Thanks to Daniels, her sixth-graders and all the contributors at Smith, the worldwide Haiti relief effort is more than $1,000 stronger.
“I’m so very proud of them,” Daniels said.
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