Students Learn Many Lessons During “Have A Heart” Coin Drive

— Gifted and talented students served ice cream to children at the Northside Elementary School in Decatur during a party to celebrate their success with the Have a Heart for Haiti coin drive.

Students collected $1,086.64 - or more than 260 pounds of coins - for earthquake victims in Haiti. The fundraiser was sponsored by the school’s gifted and talented students. The money will be divided between two organizations, Mission to Haiti and WorldVillage.

Eleven-year-old Louis Tugwell of Siloam Springs visited the school and helped the gifted and talented students serve ice cream. Louis was in Haiti waiting to join his adoptive family in the United States when the earthquake occurred.

The project has given students a chance not only to learn about giving but to study the people, culture and history of Haiti in a way that makes it real to them.

Gifted and talentedteacher Andrea VanSandt had her students research Haiti and present facts about the country at an assembly in February. VanSandt said she wanted all the children to focus on the similarities between the people in Haiti and themselves, yet be aware of their needs. Children in Haiti like to play many of the same games as children in Decatur, such as hide-and-seek and soccer, she said.

Students also got to meet Molly Stroud of Prairie Grove, who was on a mission trip in Haiti when the earthquake struck. Stroud described the earthquake and the needs of the Haitian people before and after the disaster.

The Decatur State Bank and Sam’s Club donated supplies for the ice cream party, VanSandt said. The students competed, boys against girls, to see who could collect the most coins. The girls collected the most coins by weight and the boys collected the most coins by value.

In the end, everybody won.

News, Pages 5 on 04/28/2010