Florida Pupils Give Quake Aid to School

Crescent Heights Elementary School has received a donation to repair damage sustained in the Northridge quake: $500 raised by Florida elementary school pupils through lunch money, allowances and piggy banks.

The gift was delivered last week by Donna Fischbach, an assistant principal at Tampa’s Claywell Elementary School, which has fresh memories of what was previously the nation’s costliest disaster--Hurricane Andrew. Fischbach said her students collected canned goods for hurricane refugees, who were evacuated to the region from Dade County.

Although Crescent Heights Elementary has received $2,500 in federal aid for repairs, the recent donation was appreciated by the staff and 255 students in fourth through sixth grades.

“Even though it’s small, it’s very special to us because it’s made up of gifts from children to children,” said Marie Kendricks, Crescent Elementary’s principal. The money will be used to replace cracked lighting, broken ceiling tiles and damaged instructional materials, she said.

Kaci Groh, a third-grader at Claywell Elementary, came up with the idea to make donations after seeing television footage of a man whose roof had collapsed. Within two weeks she amassed the funds by setting up a donation stand at the school, visiting the school’s 35 classrooms and issuing a plea for money on the school’s closed-circuit television channel.

Fischbach decided to hand-deliver the check while visiting a relative in Los Angeles. She toured Crescent Elementary classrooms and was presented with a “school-to-school” plaque and a trophy for Groh with the inscription: “Kaci Groh--you’re our hero.”

Fischbach said her students learned many lessons.

“Reading and writing (are) important, but we also enroll our students in a daily 15-minute ‘positive action program’ that encourages help for others,” she said.

The recent gift made an impression on many students.

“I was excited another school from another state would care about us,” said Raasean Robinson, a sixth-grader. “Next time there’s a disaster at some other school, I hope to make my own donation.”