Staff Writer
Shortly after Christmas, Shirley Fortin, manager of the Bread of Life Soup Kitchen in Caribou, received an interesting donation of over $600 and letters addressed to her from the students at Stowe Middle School (SMS) in Vermont who spearheaded the fundraiser for a soup kitchen in a town that they had never been to.
Photo contributed by Lucas Peterson
Some of Mr. Lucas Peterson’s students who contributed to the creation of the fundraiser prepared for and afternoon outside in Stowe, Vermont on Jan 9. The students, through their own hard work, raised over $600 for the Bread of Life Soup Kitchen in Caribou.
“We heard what was happening up in Caribou, Maine, and we wanted to help,” wrote Brendan, SMS student in grade 7, “we have got more money than we ever expected to get.”
“We have been doing a coin drive for you because we heard that the economy hasn’t been treating you well,” wrote Jake, a grade 7 student at SMS.
The coin drive, which lasted about two weeks, was entirely the creation and decision of the 7th grade students in Lucas Peterson’s 7th grade class.
“After Thanksgiving, Mr. Peterson found this article in his local paper,” wrote Joshua, a SMS grade 7 student, “when he read it to the class, we decided to do a coin drive for your kitchen.”
“I didn’t come up with the idea,” said Peterson, native to New Sweden, “I saw the story in the news paper and, in my class, we talk about what we can do to help out other people, so I shared the article with the kids in my T.A., (teacher advisory, similar to a home room), and they came up with this idea entirely on their own through their hard work; they decided that the wanted to do a coin drive and decided to extend it to the entire 7th grade.”
“To help motivate us, we turned [the coin drive] into a competition between the three homerooms,” wrote Griffin, a SMS grade 7 student, “We don’t know who is winning but that doesn’t matter. All that matters is raising you as much money as possible. Here at SMS, we understand that the U.S. is going through tough economic times and a soup kitchen that gives out free food and relies on donations will take most of the fall with less donations and more mouths to feed,” he added.
Though their fund raiser started small, it didn’t’ stay that way for long.
“We handed out small jars to the 7th grade T.A.’s, but they weren’t big enough, we started filling up a big pretzel jar,” wrote Yannah, an SMS grade 7 student, “I think people did this because they knew how awful it would be without a holiday dinner or any dinner.”
“In all honesty,” wrote Sam, SMS grade 7 student, “I was not expecting very much money to come in, but about three days after the fundraiser started, donations started pouring in. Everyone had realized that the kitchen needed help, so, in the spirit of Christmas, they began to give. Normally, my grade doesn’t do very much for fundraisers, but something was different this time. I don’t know what it was, but I sure hope that there is enough money to keep you going.”
“Learning about our soup kitchen was our reward,” wrote Andrew, a SMS grade 7 student, “that people need help and people like you and your volunteers help them. We also realized how lucky we are and so we all wanted to help contribute to your cause.”
“I thought that we could take a field trip up there for abut a week and help out, but the bus ride would be too long for 60 kids,” wrote John, a SMS grade 7 student.
‘I’m going to answer each and every one of these letters,” said Fortin, “When Mr. Peterson gave me these letters, it really touched my heart to see that seventh graders realize how badly the soup kitchen is needed and they’re not even from this town.”
