Students have fundraising effort licked
A group of students have decided to make their mark on the world by fundraising for a life saving device.
Students from the REACH programme at Enner Glynn School have been working all term to make money for a LifePod, designed by Sir Ray Avery.
Teacher Eva Cranefield said the year 4 and 5 students had asked how they could do something for others and so she taught them about the LifePod.
‘‘Once they learnt about him they decided they wanted to do something because this lot came to me full of ideas about how they could change the world.
‘‘So this is something they thought they could do to make a difference with their actions.’’
Cranefield said the kids decided to sell iceblocks at school to fundraise for the device and were doing everything themselves with a little guidance from her.
They began by presenting to each class at the school what they had learnt about the LifePods and how they planned to make money to buy one. They need to make $2000 for a LifePod, an incubator for small or premature babies in the developing world.
In third world countries mainstream incubators don’t work well because they need repairing a lot, maintenance, purified water and uninterrupted power supplies. The LifePod is designed to purify its own air and water and run for 10 years.
The children charge a dollar for the ice blocks and make 72 cents profit. It’s been five weeks since they started selling and they have made $677 towards their $2000 target.
Cranefield said although there were faster ways to fundraise, by selling iceblocks the children were learning things that they can use later on in life.
‘‘We could have done it a quicker, easier way but this way there is a lot of learning for the children with managing this kind of thing. Every week they’re having to turn up and take their orders and solve lots of problems.’’