‘Children helping children’: Baker Elementary coin drive helps fund orphanage in Nepal
When Erik Wiesemann started the All Wound Up Yo-Yo Club at Baker Elementary School in 2012, his goal was always to teach kids neat yo-yo tricks and how they can make the world a better place.
“Children have the best hearts and often want to help, but don’t always feel like there’s anything they can do,” said Mr. Wiesemann, a kindergarten teacher at the Upper St. Clair school. “This was an opportunity to take a simple toy and use it not only as an opportunity to learn but [also] to help others.”
All Wound Up has grown so much since its inception the only way he could accommodate all 51 students who wanted to participate was by creating three separate groups that meet weekly on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Mr. Wiesemann has somehow managed to continue devoting time to the club as well as his other philanthropic endeavors, including his nonprofit Light in My City that provides sources of light to Pittsburgh’s homeless population.
One of All Wound Up’s most recent charitable undertakings was the schoolwide coin drive it held in late March. The students were collecting money from their classmates that would be donated to help fund the construction of an orphanage in Nepal that will house 15 homeless children. Not only did All Wound Up raise a total of $7,527, but also it brought in an extra $2,000 as well that will be given to two local organizations.
“It’s great to see that people take their own initiative to not only work out what’s going on inside the classroom, but what’s going on outside the classroom,” said Baker Principal Patrick McClintock-Comeaux. “Teachers naturally care about children. For them to inspire their kids to care about other kids that they never get to see, that’s a treat for me.”
From March 21-25, Baker students were asked to donate specific denominations of money each day of the week. It started with pennies on Monday and evolved to nickels on Tuesday, dimes on Wednesday, quarters on Thursday and bills on Friday. The $7,527 will go toward the orphanage, and that extra $2,000 will be split between Zachary’s Mission, which supports families of medically fragile children, and Angels’ Place, which helps struggling single parents complete their educations.
Mr. Wiesemann found out about the Nepalese children through his parents, whose work as medical missionaries through the South East Asia Prayer Center has brought them to that country many times. The coin drive money will help pay for the acquisition of the orphanage building; a new water tap and updated water system; various renovations; bunk beds, bedding, shelves and furnishings; a kitchen and dinner table; and bathing supplies.
When Mr. Wiesemann heard about the 15 kids living on the streets, he quickly decided “it was a logical connection to help those children.” It was also an opportunity to teach his All Wound Up members about how they can impact folks far beyond Western Pennsylvania. Mr. Wiesemann found they were quite receptive to that notion, and he enjoyed watching them work as a team to earn so much money for such a quintessentially good cause.
“Children helping children was something they could really rally around,” he said.
Not that it was a competition, but one class did end up raising the most money during the coin drive. That would be Kelsey O’Leary’s fourth grade class, which rustled up a total of $530.15 and earned themselves a grand-prize basket full of yo-yos provided by All Wound Up sponsor YoYoFactory.
Ms. O’Leary is an Upper St. Clair native who prior to joining the Baker Elementary staff did a lot of mission work throughout Pittsburgh and went on mission trips to Washington, D.C., Alabama and Nicaragua. She is constantly reminding her students to be kind, which includes “doing your part and helping others.” Ideally, contributing to the coin drive will show Baker students one way to help people and inspire them to “think of your own ways to do that after this.”
She said her students were excited to have won the coin drive’s prize basket, and she thinks the most rewarding part for them was when Mr. Wiesemann came to their class and explained to them the impact all their hard work will have on those 15 kids in Nepal.
“Kids were understanding what these children’s lives are currently like and how their lives are going to change because of them,” Ms. O’Leary said.
Like most schools, the last two-plus
years have been a roller coaster for Baker Elementary. This school year
was held almost entirely in-person with some students still learning remotely. Ms. O’Leary said the disruption to the previous two school years reminded all of Baker’s teachers about how important it is to “build those relationships in person” with students. Mr. Wiesemann has always found that “children thrive on that interaction with each other.”
Mr. McClintock-Comeaux said he loves how Mr. Wiesemann “takes risks to do things that don’t seem obvious” — like, say, connecting his yo-yo club with a coin drive designed to aid kids living more than 7,500 miles from Pittsburgh. All Mr. Wiesemann wants is for his students to see the tangible effects of the coin drive on their peers from across the globe and know “they can change their lives for the better.”
“I’m extremely proud of their intentionality and motivation to provide for this orphanage,” he said. “What they did will be something they will likely remember for the rest of their lives.”