FRIENDS IN NEED

WASILLA — Nancy Hall was up early on Monday.

After a 2 a.m. fire claimed the home of a Valley family of four, Hall, who manages the Mat-Su Valley Service Center of the American Red Cross, did what she does best — help people.

It’s a lesson that hits home with many, and is especially prominent in the wake of natural disasters. Since an earthquake devastated Haiti on Jan. 12, international aid has been pouring into the small country. With the country’s capital leveled and estimates of more than 200,000 dead, the need there is great, Hall said.

In the Mat-Su, the plight of Haiti has been of particular interest at local schools. Although up early responding to the fire, Hall was all smiles while accepting a check from Cottonwood Elementary School’s third-graders.

Immediately after the disaster, students began asking what they could to do help the earthquake victims, said principal Lisa Vrvilo. So, they began donating their loose change and coins, filling up 5-gallon containers.

“The kids were talking about it and we wanted to do something,” Vrvilo said. “A lot of them gave their own money. We said, ‘Dig through your closets and under the cushions.’”

The result? A check for $1,000 for Hall to put toward Haitian relief.

“Did we earn exactly $1,000?” asked 9-year-old Thomas Haase.

“We actually earned $990,” Vrvilo answered. “So I threw in another $10 to make it an even $1,000.”

Haase said he was a frequent contributor to the school’s Coins For Care drive, giving “about $11 or $12 from my piggy bank. My brother (first-grader Mason) brought in all of his money, his whole piggy bank.”

Giving to those in need is rewarding, said Shelby Nevada, 9.

“There’s a lot of people, like, in a lot of trouble,” she said. “They don’t have that much water, not that much food, no shelter.”

Haase said he hopes others would give if something similar were to happen in the Valley.

“It would be horrible (to have an earthquake here),” he said. “Like, maybe one-third of Wasilla would be really bad. It would be down to the ground.”

Culture of giving

Monday’s presentation ceremony at Cottonwood was just one example of many Valley schools giving to help Haiti. Before Hall’s stop at Cottonwood, Teeland Middle School presented a check for the Red Cross for $2,267.63.

“The best part of this story isn’t that we raised the money,” said Teeland principal Katie Ellsworth, “it’s that the kids went to their teachers and said they wanted to do something.”

Along with a silent auction that raised about $1,700, the students held a Kiss a Barnyard Animal fund-raiser, Ellsworth said. That event had students raising just over $400 by paying for other students or staff to kiss either a rabbit, goat, pony or pig. Surprisingly, Ellsworth was not a favorite target to kiss an animal.

“They did not pick me,” she said. “The seventh- and eighth-graders paid for their friends, and the sixth-graders paid for themselves more than they did for staff members.”

Other schools have also raised money for various charitable organizations. Some of those efforts include:

n Knik Elementary School, $839.56.

n Wasilla High School, $3,188.

n Palmer High School, nearly $1,500.

n Machetanz Elementary School Parent Teacher Organization, $2,243.

n Larson Elementary School, $25.

Helping at home

While efforts to help victims of the Haiti earthquake continue, the Valley’s Red Cross efforts are strained, Hall said. Donations are about 60 percent of what they were at this time last year, and the Red Cross has responded to help 12 families put out by fires in a six-week period between Nov. 21 and Jan. 11.

Responding quickly to local needs “is our mission,” Hall said. “Don’t forget the local. We’re running about about 60 percent of the donations of where we were a year ago. A lot of that’s the economy and, right now, it’s (competition with) international needs.”

When asked what students learned by organizing their own fund-raisers, Ellsworth turned the tables.

“Let me tell you what I learned from them,” she said. “No matter what type of lifestyle they come from, whether they have needs at home or things are very easy at home, they are all willing to give. What a generous student body we have.”

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.