FSG student raises over $500 for homeless
Following the recognition of Homeless Awareness Week back in November, one Francis S. Grandinetti Elementary School student got the idea she wanted to do more to help homeless students in her community.
“Our school was talking about homeless people and I was just thinking about what I could do to help,” fourth grade student Adeline Macer, 10, said.
“She just wanted to do something to help the other kids,” said Erica Heindl, Ridgway Area School District’s supervisor of special education and student services said.
Macer did more than something, she and her family recently provided over $500 from a fundraising effort spearheaded by Macer to RASD.
Heindl said that following Homeless Awareness Week, Macer spoke to her parents about her ideas and a plan was born to raise funds for homeless students at RASD district schools.
“Addie began learning about homelessness from school and also at her religious education class at St. Leo Magnus Catholic Church,” mother Patricia Macer said. “She learned that there were homeless people in our community and I think it really touched her. She was unaware we have homeless kids in our community."
Patricia Macer said her daughter really wanted to do something and told her parents about her plans.
“That was when we reached out to Erica Heindl,” Patricia Macer said. “Because of COVID we had to think outside of the box a little bit, we couldn’t do the normal types of fundraisers we might normally do.”
At first the Macers discussed possibly selling snacks or lollipops, but Addie Macer came up with an idea she knew would be a big hit with her fellow students, namely selling Smencils pencils. Smencils are scented pencils that come in a variety of different smells.
“A ton of people like Smencils,” Addie Macer said of her fellow students. “They smell good. They are just regular pencils with different scents like cherry, orange and apple.”
As Macer was looking to have her fundraiser during the holiday season, her Smencils selections had a holiday theme. Options like snowman snowberry, elf mint cocoa, santa candy cane, penguin sugar plum and gingerbread, were the five Smencils selections available to those who purchased pencils as part of Macer’s fundraiser. Originally Macer wanted to sell the pencils to her fellow classmates Heindl said, but a quarantine, followed by the closure of the school meant plans had to change in order to have the fundraiser.
Macer said she was a little upset at first, but did not want to give up on her idea.
Ultimately Macer decided to sell the pencils on Facebook.
“She recorded a little video to sell them on Facebook,” Patricia Macer. “This allowed us to reach people outside of our community.”
Patricia Macer said people as far away as Minnesota and North Carolina purchased pencils, as well as people in Virginia and West Virginia.
According to father Greg Macer, young Addie Macer ran her fundraiser much like a business. Greg Macer helped his daughter create a very colorful order form using a graphic arts computer at his workplace.
“Mostly Addie designed it,” Patricia Macer said. “Greg helped her but she put a lot of it together.
“She has an entrepreneurial spirit,” Greg Macer said. “It is nice to see her work on and follow through on projects.”
In addition to creating an order form, Addie also counted the funds as they came in and wrote personal thank you noted to everyone who contributed to the project.
Greg and Patricia Macer said the whole family got involved in the project as Addie’s brother Liam 12, and Isabella, 14, also helped with the project.
“Her brother and sister helped her make a bunch of posters,” Patricia Macer said. “They are both really proud of her.”
The Macers said this type of benevolence is nothing new for their daughter.
“In the past she has done a bake sale for the animal shelter and she regularly goes around to kids in the neighborhood and donates her toys,” Patricia Macer said.
Heindl said that it was amazing what Addie Macer was able to do. She noted that Homeless Awareness Week is something districts all across the state participate in and it is an opportunity for the district to teach about homelessness. Heindl noted that homelessness often isn’t what people think it is. She noted that often homelessness can mean families that are displaced or engaging in what she called “doubling-up” whereby families live temporarily with someone else. Heindl noted that also those children who are not living in a consistent home can also be considered homeless.
Of over 780 students in RASD, Heindl said approximately 20 students meet the definition of homeless.
During Homeless Awareness Week in November, Heindl said the district also hosted a mitten tree, with mittens, hats and gloves as well as a blanket donation program.
The Macers said they originally purchased 500 pencils and still have 20 packages of five Smencils. They were selling the Smencils for $8 for a pack of five. From the pencils sold they were able to recently provide a $503 check to RASD.
Addie Macer said she really enjoyed the fundraiser and wants to do it again this year. Her parents are already on board and noted how proud they are of their daughter for stepping forward and coming up with the idea for the fundraiser.
“My mom and dad said ‘we are really proud of you and this is a good thing you are doing,’” Addie Macer said.