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***image1***Kaiserslautern American Elementary School held their annual Spirit Week, during which students participated in a wide variety of events to promote school unity, cohesion and overall school spirit.
Spirit Week was Feb. 28 to March 4. Monday started with pajama day. Tuesday followed with wacky hair day. Wednesday was twin day, and Thursday was jersey day. Friday finished off the week with the traditional red, white and blue day.
It was more than the typical spirit week, KAES third, fourth and fifth graders did something a little more special: they collected $786 for the victims of last December’s tsunami that devastated a large portion of Southeast Asia.
Starting Monday and lasting through Friday, three labeled containers were placed in the school cafeteria. Children were asked to donate any money they felt was appropriate and that they could afford. Each day a running total was added up, with the previous day’s earnings added to the total.
Each grade seemed to battle each other on who was going to be able to raise the most amount of money. However, the euro played an important role.
Instead of adding the euro to the total for each day and each grade level, the euro was used to subtract from a particular grade level. For example if the fifth graders donated $30 one day, and the fourth graders placed €5 in their container, the total in essence for the fifth graders on that day decreased to $25.
But rest assured, all euro collected, from whatever grade, was donated for the PTO, so that they could issue a check to the organization of choice from KAES. Currently KAES is considering “Doctors Without Borders” to help children who may still have medical needs.
Nancy Meeks, a fourth-grade teacher, helped the school’s student council promote the idea that seemed to really take off. Ms. Meeks said that while it was a lot of work, the children seemed to truly enjoy giving for the benefit of others.
Casey Mandeville’s third-grade class thought “it was cool that we got to raise money for people who almost lost everything.” Casey also shared that it was fun to do this “in game format.”
Breona Ramsey, a fifth-grade student who participated in the event, said, “It felt good to help people that need our help.”
Donna Donaldson, the KAES principal, applauded the efforts of all the students throughout the week who appeared to really get into the spirit of things at KAES.
