Elizabeth Bailey
In the course of one week, the students at Greensburg Elementary School collected $3,824.03 to assist relief efforts in Haiti.
Each day, coins were collected in the classrooms to support the cause. Rather than counting dollar amounts, the donations were weighed, and the weights were used in a friendly competition between grade levels, school counselor Katie Davis explained.
Throughout the week, it looked as though the fifth grade was going to come out ahead. However, Friday’s donations brought the third grade tally above that of any other class, earning them an ice cream party on Wednesday. Mainsource Bank donated the ice cream as well as the service of weighing and counting the change that was donated. Dairy Point donated ice cream sundaes, Principal Rock Linville noted.
In all, the school collected 1,034 pounds of coins to assist the people of Haiti through a donation to the American Red Cross. The fundraiser was focused upon the weight of the donations rather than the amount in order to foster wider participation and emphasize the fact that every penny can help, Davis explained. For Red Cross director Mary Ellen Anable, the donation was another step in the wide-spread fundraising efforts of the organization. As a whole, Red Cross has collected more than $140 million for relief efforts in Haiti, and most of those funds have already departed American soil, she noted.
