PORTA Central Students Take Pride in Service
by Paula Throckmorton
January 28, 2010
Students at PORTA Central try very hard to follow the RESPECT Code. In the RESPECT Code, each letter stands for a positive character trait. In November and December, the students focus on the letter ‘S’ for Service.
In November, fifth grade students read a story, “It’s Our World, Too”, which was about boys and girls making a difference by helping others who are less fortunate. The students discussed ways that they could help make a difference, and the class waited for the right opportunity. That opportunity came two weeks ago with the devastating earthquake in Haiti.
With true PORTA spirit, the fifth grade students quickly planned a cookie sale to raise money for the Red Cross and their relief efforts in Haiti. The families of these 75 students went above and beyond the call—there were enough homemade cookies donated to sell at lunch time to hold the bake sale on two days. Each homeroom class and their teacher took a lunch period and many students gave up their lunch recess to work at the cookie sale. All students and staff members had the opportunity to purchase a cookie for a quarter. It was amazing to see the enthusiasm of all the students, and it was even more rewarding to see how so many students gave much more than their quarter—some giving up to $20 to buy just a cookie. Staff members also made generous contributions to the cause. In total, the cookie sale brought in $360 in donations over the two-day period.
Several boxes of leftover cookies were donated to the Ronald McDonald House in Springfield. The school regularly donates pop tabs to the Ronald McDonald House as an ongoing service project; the latest donation was 10.6 pounds of tabs that were delivered along with the left-over cookies from last week's sale.
Click here to see pictures of the "Help Us Help Haiti" Cookie Sale.
"Help Us Help Haiti" Cookie Sale
