On January 12th, 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere known as Haiti. Everyone watched the heartbreaking event from their television screens feeling helpless. Seeing the devastation that the earthquake caused, and hearing about the much needed medical supplies to tend to the survivors, made everyone want to help. Even days after the earthquake had hit, there were still survivors being pulled from the ruble. We all knew that no amount of money could ever replace the lives that were taken in this natural disaster, but it could at least help ease the pain and provide vital supplies for the Haitians. Celebrities and big organizations across the world were donating millions to the cause. It seemed like everyone was pitching in and Haiti was getting billions of dollars, but I still felt that my community and I also had to do our parts.
In my high school leadership class we started brainstorming ideas. We had to come up with a way to get the whole student body involved. We started with a goal of raising $5,000 in 2 weeks. I walked around at lunch with a five gallon empty water jug, collecting spare change from students. At first kids were eager to donate, but after a couple days everyone’s spare change was non-existent. It became annoying to students being directly asked for their money, which they didn’t have to spare. We needed a plan that was more anonymous but also extremely effective. At the end of the first week we counted the money to find that we had only risen a little over $1,000. We knew that to meet our goal we had to do more, in a short amount of time.
Back in leadership class we started considering new ideas to reach our goal. “We could give a pizza party to the class who raises the most money,” said one kid. “I don’t want the kids working towards any reward except the self-satisfaction of helping people in need,” Mr. Anderson replied. After many suggested ideas flew through the classroom, I thought of a catchy way to get people to donate. Our student body was comprised of over 2,400 students meaning that if everyone gave only a dollar we would be much closer to our goal. “What if we did something like, $2,000 in 2 minutes?” I suggested. I explained the idea of having each kid bring one dollar to their third period class and putting it in an envelope throughout an announced period of two minutes, then bringing the envelope to the cashiers’ office. The class was very supportive of my idea. “That sounds like a good plan,” said Mr. Anderson. After discussing the logistics of the plan, we came to the conclusion that the event would take place on the last day of the week.
We made announcements over the intercom every morning and also at every lunch throughout the whole week. We made big, flashy posters around the campus reading the words, “$2,000 in two minutes! Bring a dollar this Friday.” On Friday morning during third period Mr. Anderson came on the intercom. “Attention Kentridge: At this time we will be starting the $2,000 in 2 minutes. Ready…set….GO!” Students scrambled around the classrooms tossing money into the envelopes left and right. Some people brought checks from their parents at home, and teachers were even throwing in cash! It was amazing to see the plan working. In the halls one student from each class raced the envelope to the cashier’s office, hoping that we had met our goal. The leadership class sat in the office counting money for what seemed like forever. There were dollar bills, checks, coins, and even an old stash of 2 dollar bills in the pile. By the time lunch rolled around, it became apparent that we had done much more then just meet our goal, we had almost doubled it!
At the end of the school day or school principal came on the intercom, “Students and staff of Kentridge: I am very pleased to announce that the Kentridge community not only met our goal in our Haiti relief efforts, but exceeded it by far. The amount of generosity shown by this high school is outstanding. In less than two minutes we raised, $9,442.93.” Cheers filled the classrooms and echoed throughout the whole school. On Monday we only had a mere $1,000, and four days later we were just shy of $10,000! Everyone was amazed at the amount of money we had raised. There was even a story written in our local newspaper about our accomplishments. The most astonishing part out of everything we did was that it all happened in less than two minutes. I was so proud of the students and our community for going above and beyond for Haiti.
Being a part of something so big and outstanding really impacted my life. I now realize that no matter how far behind you are, you can always make it through and even out do the standards set. If you work hard and persevere, you might just come out ahead in the end. Raising this money for Haiti during their hardest times has really made me realize that helping others is really fun and very rewarding. Even if you don’t think that your efforts won’t make an impact, you should still go for it because every little bit helps. From this experience I also learned not to underestimate myself or my community. We set our goal to raise at least 5,000 dollars and by the end of the two weeks we almost doubled that! No one expected us to raise such a large amount of money but with a little bit of creativity, we did it. Even with all of the excitement about our big accomplishment, the most rewarding thing about it was helping the people of Haiti. It felt good to know that we made a difference in their lives and that we are helping to turn them in the right direction for their future.
