Students donate change to hurricane victims

By: CRAIG SHULTZ - Staff Writer | Sunday, November 20, 2005 9:05 PM PST ∞

MURRIETA ---- Spare change. We all have it. It sits atop dressers and in piggy banks and jars, often forgotten and seemingly never to be spent again.

Sixth-graders at Shivela Middle School found a good use for their spare change, donating it to the American Red Cross' hurricane recovery fund.

Jars were set up in the classrooms of language arts/social students teachers Corky Johnson and Norma Slinkard, and students dropped in their spare change over a two-week period after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

Slinkard's students donated $263.50 and Johnson's $186.44 for a total of $449.94, which was donated Wednesday at the Red Cross' Temecula office.

"They really felt they wanted to help out," Johnson said. "We didn't have to coax the kids at all."

Johnson said his classes donated 25 pounds of quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies and Slinkard added that it took more than 45 minutes to run all of the coins collected in her classes through a supermarket change machine.

Students went through drawers and seat cushions to find change. Melissa Jones said she donated a quarter she unexpectedly found in a pants pocket. They gave up candy and ice cream that they likely would have purchased with the change, students said.

Allison Moreno donated pennies she had been collecting for two years.

Johnson previously asked classes to donate to survivors of the tsunami that hit Asia last year.

"The kids are just plain out generous," he said.

A couple of dozen students showed up at the Red Cross office Wednesday evening, where development officer Sandra Lowry accepted the donation on behalf of the organization.

"What you've done is outstanding," she told the children. "You are making a difference. You're helping us help them (hurricane victims)."

Local schools have been particularly generous in the wake of Katrina and Rita, Lowry said, although there is not an exact tally of their donations. Tovashal Elementary School in Murrieta raised $2,136.60 during its two-month Coins for Katrina effort. Students from kindergarten to fifth-grade saved their allowance, raised funds at bake sales and recycled items. They presented a check to a representative from the American Red Cross on Friday during their morning flag salute.

In Temecula, Margarita Middle School's Club Mustang raised $1,200 for the Red Cross to donate to middle school students who were affected by Hurricane Katrina. Albertson's matched the donation, making it $2,400.

Lowry said that $2 million in donations have come from Riverside County.

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