Kraxberger students step up for Haiti

Four eighth grade students raise $2,000 for Mercy Corps

By Ellen Spitaleri

The Clackamas Review, Feb 9, 2010

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Four eighth graders from Kraxberger Middle School learned a couple of valuable lessons last week: young people can make a difference and don’t set your sights too low.

The girls were so affected by the images coming out of the recent earthquake in Haiti that they decided they needed to put together a fundraiser to help those stricken by the tragedy.

“Our first goal was $800,” said Cassidy Olsen-Shults, but in the end they raised more than $2,000 for Mercy Corps, a relief agency based in Portland.

The four had intended to put up a poster keeping track of the donations, but the money came in so fast that they couldn’t keep up with it.

“We made a diagram that went up to $1,000, and we were going to color where it was,” Cassidy said.

“But by the second day we were over $1,000,” noted Jessica Coiteux, and by the third day they had run out of room on the poster.

“We all called our parents – it was more than I ever imagined we could have done,” Cassidy said.

In addition to Cassidy and Jessica, Abby Linfoot and Julia Schumaker discussed how best to raise money in the school, and came up with a class competition.

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