Culver City : Students Aid Quake Relief

Children at La Ballona School in Culver City have raised more than $700 for San Francisco Bay area earthquake relief, by selling popcorn and juice and by collecting pennies.

A check for $700.19 was sent to the Red Cross last week, said Jacque Kamm, a teacher and adviser of the student council. The students, in kindergarten through the fifth grade, brought in more than $200 in pennies. Students sold popcorn for a quarter a bag and orange drink for a quarter a cup at school during recess for four days.

Kamm estimates that more than 2,000 bags of popcorn were sold. The orange drink was donated by McDonald’s, she said.

Student council President Ryan Nakanishi, 10, decided that the school’s 450 students should raise funds, after watching the earthquake news on television and worrying about his aunt in Santa Cruz. “I just thought it would be neat to send money up there. They need money so they could buy things that they need every day, like toothbrushes and clothes,” Nakanishi said.

In October, students of Culver City’s Farragut School brought $575 to school for earthquake victims, said school secretary Sue Newman. She said most of the money came from the children themselves, rather than from their parents. “They felt very close to the situation. . . . This came from their little hearts and their little pockets,” she said.