Schools

Lake Harriet 2nd Graders Raise $1,000 for Environment.

The money raised will be split between the repair of Linden Hills tennis courts and Wood Lake Nature Center.

The second graders at wanted to show their classmates what $1,000 looked like. So in a packed auditorium last week, students unrolled 54-feet of brown paper on which they'd glued 1,000 dollar-sized bills. The rest of the school squealed at the sight. Kids leapt to their feet to examine the display up close.

That was the amount of money that second graders brought in by selling old toys and books in the school's annual Earth Day service project. The money will be used to repair the Linden Hills tennis courts and buy boots for hikers at the Wood Lake Nature Center in Richfield.

"It started out when we promised to be keepers of the Earth," said second grader Lucie, referring to a long pledge her class learned. "We had to learn it very well to be able to do it," added Theo.

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Only second graders brought old toys to donate to the garage sale fundraiser. Lucie brought mostly books (and her brother's baseball cards, her mom reminds her). Theo brought a complicated game.

"We just decided it would be a good thing for Earth Day because it’s showing we could reuse, reduce and recycle toys and bring that to the attention of all the students," said Teresa Coleman, a mother to two Lake Harriet students who helped organize the garage sale fundraiser as the lead room rep in Ms. Harich's 2nd grade class.

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The pledge wasn't all the students learned.

"We also had second graders running the till, so they also learned math,
it was useful on an academic level as well," said Coleman. 

Even the school assembly was academic. Students sang songs, recited their pledge to the earth and met representatives of the two projects that benefit from their fundraiser, which they chose in a democratic vote.

"Steward. S-T-E-W-A-R-D. You folks, all of you are stewards of our planet, and that means keepers of our planet, and think about how big our planet is," Assistant Principal Ellen Murphy told students as the assembly closed. "What you've done is you've zeroed in on two important places and become very important stewards and keepers of our Earth. Thank you."


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