Finally, some news from Iowa! I’m going to get some rolls of quarters. I know there’s a bit of risk involved, but it’s worth it to encourage the children who really want to help.
By JENNIFER JACOBS
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
September 17, 2005
Forget candy. This Halloween, a 10-year-old Iowa girl wants children to trick-or-treat for loose change — even though her little brother thinks it’s a terrible idea.
Talia Leman of Waukee is encouraging children across the United States to turn Halloween into a $1 million fundraiser for hurricane relief.
She earned the backing of Hy-Vee, the Iowa-based grocer, which will print her message on 8.5 million orange grocery bags distributed at its 221 stores in seven states. It will also ask other U.S. grocers to jump on board.
Talia is calling her idea T.L.C. — Trick-or-Treating for the Levee Catastrophe. It’s one of the few national relief efforts led by children.
When Talia rings doorbells this year, dressed as Snow White or a vampire or whatever she decides to be, "I’ll say, ‘I’m raising money for T.L.C. Can you donate a quarter?’ " she said Friday.
That’s refreshing news! Earlier this year, after the tsunami, when school started up in January a couple of us teachers sat down to plot a quick fundraiser at school for tsunami relief. We had a new boss at the time, and he stepped in and basically tried to talk us out of it! “Isn’t that the job of parents at home?” he asked. He also told us that our talk of helping to develop empathy in children was way off base, as “they’re too young to learn this in primary school.” We persistently and politely argued our case and finally earned his reluctant approval to do the fundraiser on the premise that it be low key and short-lived. (I should note that had he said no, we were prepared to work around him and take our lumps )
Anyway, we simply had a coin drive for four days. We painted a big fundraising thermometer on the school’s front windows, sent a note home explaining what we were up to, and then watched our 260 kids hustle the neighbourhood, bringing in over $2000 by the end of the week. One little chap brought his change to school in a jar that had been labeled “Mini-bike fund.”
The kids helped others and had an important lesson reinforced. The thing is, it wasn’t only the kids who were learning a lesson.
I’m glad you talked that fellow into it. The ability to empathize seems to be something that needs to be taught by example when children are very young, I think. You don’t really come across adults who lack that ability who are even aware of what it is. It is some special thing. The project in your school sounds wonderful and I’m glad it was so successful in a number of ways. Really, that is a pretty impressive amount of money.
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