Chores Finance Gifts to Veterans : Students Earn Way to Pay Tribute

Donna Raider’s first reaction was one of worry when her 9-year-old daughter asked permission to vacuum their Agoura Hills house and scrub its bathrooms.

“Shannon’s a sweet child but she can be such a little pig,” said Raider. “So when she volunteered to clean, I thought she might be sick.”

It turned out that Shannon was in perfect health. And she performed a perfect cleaning job upstairs and down--before asking Raider to pay her for the work.

Flag Day Tribute

Shannon is one of 75 Sumac Elementary School fourth-graders who are financing an unusual Flag Day tribute next week to patients at the Sepulveda Veterans Administration Medical Center.

Instead of asking for donations, the children agreed to do chores to raise money for candy, small American flags and 120 tiny red, white and blue baskets that will be distributed Friday to veterans at the center’s nursing home.

Ten-year-old Amy Arneson cleaned up scrap lumber at the site of the new family home her father, Ed, is building.

Jennifer Bland, also 10, helped assemble and pack new clocks at a clock shop owned by her father, Bob.

Tracy Heflin, 9, dusted her family’s furniture and washed dishes. Ernie Kwock, 10, vacuumed his family’s home and washed the car. Ten-year-old Robbie Kaller took out trash, straightened his room and cleaned the family dog’s run.

“The veterans fought in the wars so we can live in this country,” Robbie explained Friday after the children formed an assembly line to fill the baskets with the freshly purchased candy and flags. “They deserve it.”

Charity ‘Closer to Home’

Teachers Sherrie Weisman and Pat Walker said the project grew out of classroom discussions about Ethiopian famine relief efforts now under way in the United States.

“Bangladesh was the big fund-raising effort in our time,” said Walker. “And they’re still fighting over the money that was raised then. By looking for worthy people closer to home, we’ll know our gifts got there.”

Because affluent Agoura Hills is a place “where kids are indulged with all the computer games and video games and TVs with 38 channels,” pupils were required to tell the class what type of chore they performed as the quarters and dollars that eventually totaled $60 were collected, Weisman said.

The results delighted parents and VA officials alike on Friday.

“Every time you turn around out here there’s another community fund-raiser for this group or that,” said Norm Brust, whose 9-year-old son, Scott, dusted and mopped floors to earn $3.50 for the project. “If a parent just hands a child money, the child doesn’t know its value or how much work is involved in earning money.”

Ann Van Wie, volunteer services specialist at the Sepulveda center, said the project will have a different value to VA patients when the baskets are distributed.

“Our average age here is 63,” Van Wie said. “It’s thrilling to the veterans when they know that the younger generation hasn’t forgotten them.”