The plan was simple: At the start of third period on Jan. 22, members of the Kentridge High School Leadership class would collect money from their classmates in an envelope, which would then be run down to the cashier\u2019s office, all within two minutes.<\/p>\n
The money all would be counted and donated to the American Red Cross to go toward Haiti earthquake-relief efforts.<\/p>\n
The hope was that the students of Kentridge could raise $2,000 for the people of Haiti, a number that translates to a little less than $1 per student.<\/p>\n
During the morning bulletin, the call came: \u201cOn your mark, get set, go!\u201d<\/p>\n
With that, the students began to give what they could.<\/p>\n
And while the idea was simple, the results were extraordinary.<\/p>\n
As the money started to come in, it became obvious that Kentridge had exceeded its goal. By a lot.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew by 10:30 we collected over $6,000 in those two minutes,\u201d said assistant principal and leadership class teacher Eric Anderson, who helped count the money. \u201cLiterally it looked like a casino.\u201d<\/p>\n
When all was said and done, the students of Kentridge had raised $9,442.93.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was a phenomenal thing that happened,\u201d Anderson said.<\/p>\n
Anderson said the idea for the two-minute drill came in two parts. First, in preparation for this past weekend\u2019s Les Schwab shoot-out at the ShoWare Center, Kentridge was locked in an annual charity fundraising battle with rival Kentwood in which each school tries to out-raise the other.<\/p>\n
Anderson also had read about the two-minute collection in a journal and thought it would be a good way to raise some extra money. During the week, the leadership clubs were passing around jugs at lunch to collect money, but decided to try the two-minute collection as a fun way to raise more.<\/p>\n
And raise they did.<\/p>\n
The total money is reflected in the links of each school\u2019s \u201cspirit chain,\u201d with each paper link representing a $0.25 donation. The school with the longest chain at the shootout wins.<\/p>\n
This year, Kentridge\u2019s chain includes 4,000 links, representing one-10th of the total length for all the money collected, primarily through the two-minute drill.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody had any idea it would be this successful,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cIt was overwhelming.\u201d<\/p>\n
Originally, the school was collecting money for the district\u2019s food and clothing bank, but after the earthquake, the students changed their focus.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen the Haiti disaster happened and we decided we had to raise money for that,\u201d said senior Avery McGinnis, 18, adding \u201cwe were hoping to get $5,000 total.\u201d<\/p>\n
McGinnis said she was \u201cshocked and surprised\u201d when the money started rolling in.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really cool to see the generosity of everyone at the school,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
According to Anderson, the money didn\u2019t come in just in change, but in stacks of bills – including $50s and $100s – and a pile of checks as well. Some teachers even matched their class totals.<\/p>\n
Anderson said the school collected $1,400 in just $20 bills and collected enough coins to use as a math story problem for the school.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had 50 pounds in coins,\u201d he said, before revealing the answer about how much money that is. \u201cThat\u2019s $497.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anderson said the teachers and students counted all of the checks and paper money and took the coins to Coinstar, with one of the teachers agreeing to pay for whatever Coinstar\u2019s percentage of the money would be, ensuring nothing would be taken away from the total.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were actually surprised at turned out as great as it did,\u201d said junior Cassie, 17 (last name withheld at request). Cassie said she was involved in making posters and helped in the counting, which took much of the day.<\/p>\n
But while the amount came as a surprise to many, the generosity of the student body did not.<\/p>\n
\u201cKentridge is a good school and I knew we could reach a large amount of money,\u201d said senior Kelsey Yokoyama, 17, who helped put together the school\u2019s chain.<\/p>\n
Yokoyama also said that the money shows that despite what people say about teenagers, they are responsible citizens.<\/p>\n
KR Principal Mike Albrecht said he was \u201camazed\u201d at the total, but \u201cnot surprised.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery single time our kids have been asked to step up – whether it\u2019s been a world disaster or local needs – it\u2019s amazing how giving they are,\u201d he said, recalling similar collections following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 and the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.<\/p>\n
Albrecht said the total reflects the whole of the Kentridge community, not just students, because of the size of checks and cash donation coming in.<\/p>\n
Albrecht said giving back was part of the \u201cKR Way\u201d taught in the school, an idea that reinforces good character, citizenship, integrity, caring and respect.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot only are you a citizen at Kentridge and a citizen Kent, but we\u2019re part of a global community now,\u201d Albrecht said.<\/p>\n
McGinnis agreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it shows (KR students) are really giving and really aware of what\u2019s going on around them in the world,\u201d she said. \u201cIn times of need and when it comes down to it … our community is willing to give back.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The plan was simple: At the start of third period on Jan. 22, members of the Kentridge High School Leadership class would collect money from their classmates in an envelope, which would then be run down to the cashier\u2019s office, all within two minutes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":223,"featured_media":2498,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-2497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2497"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/223"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2497"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=2497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}