November 9, 2006 at 9:28 a.m.
Trick-or-treating to make a difference
Trick-or-treating to make a difference
The fifth graders at Taylors Falls Elementary had a different idea, however, and asked the whole school to help them.
When a challenge was offered by an Edina dentist to donate Halloween candy to be sent to soldiers in Iraq, the fifth grade students thought it fit perfectly with what they have been doing in their classrooms.
The “Portable People for Compassion” project has been a way for the fifth grade classes (two of which are housed in TF’s portable building) to think of ways to help others. The students began by collecting school supplies, to be sent to soldiers in Afghanistan and subsequently distributed to needy children.
Dentist Jonathan Moren was asking children to bring in their unwanted Halloween candy with the enticement that he would pay them $1 a pound for the candy. He then had a plan to send the candy to soldiers in Iraq so they could celebrate Halloween as well.
The fifth graders thought it was a perfect idea to go along with their service project theme, so they encouraged the entire school to bring in candy the next day.
As the bags of gum, candy bars and other goodies streamed in Wednesday morning, the fifth grade teachers realized it was a success.
Bags brought in throughout the day were weighed. Last-minute donations as the boxes were being loaded in fifth grade teacher Sheryl Spray’s car easily brought the total to over 61 pounds of candy.
Somehow, the drive also garnered the attention of KSTP channel 5 producers, who sent reporter Jennifer Griswold and a cameraman to interview Spray and film her class Wednesday afternoon.
Spray is still unclear how the news station found out about the candy drive, although it may have happened because the crew was already filming a live segment from Wild Mountain earlier that day.
The story didn’t end at the classroom, however. The station had a cameraman waiting at the dentist’s office in Edina to film three fifth grade student volunteers and Spray as they dropped off the donations and received their money.
Moren and his staff were very impressed – not only that Taylors Falls collected that much candy, but that Spray and the students were willing to drive more than an hour to deliver it.
As Savannah Brinker, Grace Wright and Hayley Grezek picked out free toothbrushes for everyone in their classes, Moren wrote out a check. Combined with the $61 for TF’s donation was $14 that an anonymous donor said he would like to see go to Taylors Falls Elementary. Spray isn’t sure who it was, or how they found out about the school bringing a donation.
The Taylors Falls Elementary representatives left the dentist’s office with a lighter load – trading 61 pounds of candy for 65 toothbrushes and a check.
Spray said the money was earmarked to help complete the school supply drive. After that, the classes agreed that they would donate the rest to a fundraiser for Jan Ramberg, sister-in-law of fifth grade teacher Patti Klinke.
Although the fifth graders led the drive, Spray said the whole school brought in candy donations. “Kids were bringing in bags from all the classrooms,” Spray said.
The consensus among the fifth graders – both on and off-camera, was that they were proud to be doing something for someone else.
Also participating were fifth graders in Neva Noyd’s class.
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