Saturday, January 16, 2010

Doing the Best You Can

As most Americans, I've been watching the news from Haiti with sadness and concern. It's almost impossible to imagine a country so devastated and also with so few resources to cope with the losses.
On the flipside, I have been so heartened by the response of my students to the disaster! They got together the very next day to plan what they wanted to do to help and put their first stage of the plan into operation last night.
Ed and I work with the Key Club at our school. For those who might not know, Key Club is a high school branch of Kiwanis Clubs International, and the youth involved work to do service and benefit community charities, particularly those involving children. Our kids decided that phase one was to raise money for Haiti as quickly as possible. They started last night with a "Change War" Challenge. We had a home basketball game scheduled vs. St. Dominic, a conference rival and fellow Christian (Catholic) high school. The challenge went on during all three of the home games with results announced at each game interval (half times and between). We had a standing room only crowd show up and the fans were VERY generous. They gave their pocket change at the gate, concession stands, and when the cheer squad went up into the stands to the tune of over $700! Lutheran High won the challenge... but Haiti won the night! And the kids felt like it was possible to get others involved in making a difference! A good thing all the way around. (LHS did lose the varsity game, but that's not the best story of the night...) Next week, the faculty/student donation drive! I'll keep you posted!

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