Wasilla Middle School students pay it forward

Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey probably has no idea how he helped families in the Valley get into apartments this holiday season, but it was one of his films that helped accomplish the task.

Spacey's movie Pay it Forward was viewed by Deb Petersen's class at Wasilla Middle School. The moral of the story is a simple one -- instead of paying people back, pay them forward with favors and good deeds -- but it often does not happen. Petersen's students wanted to pay it forward, and so they organized a schoolwide garage sale to help raise money for the Alaska Family Resource Center.

"The movie kind of inspired us to do it because it would help other people, so we just decided to do it," said student Alyssa Jimenez.

The idea worked, in a big way. On Monday, the students presented a $500 check to the Alaska Family Resource Center. The money will help women and children get out of a shelter and into apartments, right in time for the holidays.

"It made us feel really good to know we are helping a family to get out of the shelter," said student Holly Handley. "But it's not just for the holidays."

The students tossed around a few ideas as to how to raise money, and they decided on the garage sale.

It was held the day after Thanksgiving, and was named, appropriately enough, a "Thanks for Giving" sale. Wasilla Middle School students brought in a wide range of items, from dryers to books, and other schools like Burchell High School also donated items for the sale.

"We were trying to figure out what to do and we were talking about how many people are homeless," said student Tanner Gutierrez. "So we decided to do a garage sale to help."

The students said they weren't surprised by the amount of money they made for the Alaska Family Resource Center during the sale, because they were confident people would be "unselfish," they said, and donate to the cause.

"People donated stereos, suitcases, shoes and skates," student Kyle McManus said. "We helped out a lot of people."

Peterson said she is proud of her students, because they took the initiative and really put their effort into helping others.

"They were surprised to learn that we have some homeless students in the school, and they immediately said they wanted to do whatever it took to help out," Peterson said. "They researched a couple of projects and decided on the garage sale."

Now the class is issuing a challenge to other Wasilla Middle School classrooms. Throughout the school, the "Chain of Love" links are being sold as a fund-raiser. Each link raises money, and gets each class one more link to hang on their chain in their classroom. The winning class will get a pizza party for their room -- but not Peterson's class.

"If we win, we are going to take the money they would have spent on a pizza party and either put it back into the Chain of Love or give it to the Alaska Family Resource Center," said student Sarah Peterson. "That's even more money we could donate."