By GREG BARTLETT
Staff Writer
Students at Upton and Western elementary schools are raising
money and awareness for the hungry.
The Student Technology Leadership Program at both schools
joined Heifer Project International during the 1999-2000 academic year and has
since raised thousands of dollars through a variety of activities. For
instance, students have produced a booklet that points readers to interesting
Web sites and have made a Web site themselves that shares information about
their work.
Today, students will be at the Kentucky State Fair, at a
Kentucky Department of Education booth, to promote their project and raise
money for it.
Heifer Project International began in 1944, providing
livestock and livestock-care training to families around the world. The
organization sees to it that hungry families are able to use the livestock to
feed themselves and others and earn income. Heifer Project International relies
on people like the students at Upton and Western elementaries to raise money.
Joan Stith, librarian at both schools, said she became aware
of Heifer Project International from a catalog she received. At about the same
time, her first- and second-grade students learned from a Web site that someone
in the world dies from hunger every 3.6 seconds and that 75 percent of those
who die from hunger are children.
When the students learned that, "the room went
quiet," Stith said. "You could have heard a pin drop. It really made
them sick."
So the schools decided to do something about it.
Regan Skees, a fifth-grader at Upton Elementary, recently
joined the program.
"(The project) was helping people and I just thought it
would be neat to help people," she said. "That's really what
interested me."
Different livestock require different amounts of money. A
flock of chickens, ducks or geese costs the least, at $20 a flock.
So far, students have used their money to send a sheep and
five heifers to the hungry. The heifers went to families in Rwanda, a country
in central Africa.
The schools continue to accept donations.
"Even a dollar or two would help a family not be
hungry," Stith said.
Greg Bartlett can be reached at 769-1200, Ext. 238, or
e-mail him at gregbartlett1@hotmail.com.