By Tom Thompson
PORT ANGELES — When the world was stunned by the magnitude of the earthquake and tsunami disaster in South Asia, a sixth-grade class from Roosevelt Middle School was especially touched.
No one could have guessed that at the September beginning of the school year, when classmates chose the class name Tsunamis for themselves, it would be associated with a disaster unparalleled in hundreds of years.
The class decided to do something positive for their namesake and the people touched by the Dec. 26 tragedy.
With the help of AmeriCorps worker Geri Adams, who accepted the community service project, the children heeded the international call for tsunami relief funds.
Coin campaign
A campaign of silver and copper was established using giant watercooler jugs for contributions.
Students’ piggy banks were opened and parents’ pocket change quickly absorbed as the campaign started to grow with dollars and checks pouring into the effort.
Then the fund-raising effort grew into a class competition between the seventh- and eighth-graders. A special Roosevelt Middle School exclusive showing of a movie donated by Deer Park Cinema developed as the prize for the top two fund-raising classes.
Businesses in the area were canvassed for donations, Fairview Elementary School and the Port Angeles School District central office also participated.
Students enrolled in the culinary class at the North Olympic Skills Center prepared a prime rib feast for tsunami donors, and they pooled their $1,211 to help elevate the Roosevelt fund drive.
In all, more than $6,357 was collected with the sixth grade Tsunamis team collecting more than their seventh- and eighth-grade classes combined.
The second-place eighth grade class will join the triumphant sixth-graders at the movie theater later in the month.
At a special ceremony at the school Tuesday, a check for the funds was presented by Adams to American Red Cross Olympic Peninsula chapter representatives Deb Kelly and Tom Anderson.