ATHOL — Some fifth- and sixth-graders at Athol Royalston Middle School recently did their part to help reduce the suffering of the Ukranian people by organizing a coin drive at the school. The funds raise, a total of $363.35, was donated to Convoy of Hope, a Springfield, Missouri-based nonprofit organization providing assistance to some of the 4.5 million refugees who have fled Ukraine since the Russian invasion.
The faculty adviser for the fundraiser was fifth-grade social studies/American history teacher Kaitlyn Steve. She and some of the student organizers met with the Athol Daily News on Tuesday morning, April 11.
“The district social studies/history departments from five through 12 met as a team to learn more about the crisis in Ukraine,” she said, “and worked as a team to find grade-level appropriate resources. Then we all took one or two days to step back from our curriculum and dive into Ukraine: the history behind why this conflict is happening, who are the people involved, how is it affecting their world, our world, and what can we do about it?
“A lot of kids were like, ‘What if the (Ukrainian) kids can’t go to school? What’s going to happen to the babies?” Questions like that. They really just wanted to help, which was really cool.”
Steve said both teachers and students were weighing ways to help.
“We all were kind of reading each other’s minds,” she said. “They asked, ‘Can we do a fundraiser?’ This class is fundraiser-driven. We’ve done at least 10 for a number of causes.
“They’re very active, which gives me a lot of hope for the future.”
Steve said jars were placed in classrooms throughout the school and that the volunteers went around the school some mornings and collected change from homerooms at each grade level.
Fifth-grader Kaleb McLaren, however, did his collecting elsewhere.
“Since my uncle owns Athol House of Pizza and my mom works there,” he said, “we were able to put up a second tip jar for Ukraine. So, I basically made a second tip jar there and people put money in it. Then I brought it to the school.”
Steve said on the first morning after the collection began, Kaleb walked into school with a takeout container full of change.
“I don’t think that it’s fair that Russia was attacking Ukraine because Ukraine doesn’t want to be a part of Russia,” said Mia Reed when asked why she wanted to organize the fundraiser.
“I also didn’t feel like it was fair,” added Avery Piragis, “and I wanted to help. We help with a lot of other things, too, besides this. But I think I counted like a thousand pennies.”
Avery, Kaleb, and Mia all said they hope to learn more about the situation in eastern Europe as the conflict wears on.
“I think that is the ultimate goal,” said Steve. “The teachers at the middle school have been taking a class that the high school teachers got last year. Half of our department is middle school and half is high school. So, some of the times when we have common planning — when we have that hour and a half to meet as a department — some of it has been taken for us to work on our class because we’d taken other time earlier in the year to deal with COVID issues. So, it’s a little tricky. We haven’t gotten to actually discuss this as a department, but that is the ultimate goal.
“A lot of students watch CNN 10 in the morning, and they’ve covered it the entire time.”
The conflict isn’t on the minds of the students only when they’re in the classroom.
“Last Saturday,” said Mia, “I went to see my cousin in the play ‘Annie,’ (at Eagle Hill School in Hardwick) and the director changed all the clothing to be blue and yellow to support Ukraine.”
“Me and Mia had actually done something in grades five and six,” added Avery. “We went to a painting thing, and we painted sunflowers at Athol High School, and we donated all the money that we paid for painting, and we all got to paint our own sunflower.”
The sunflower is the national flower of Ukraine. It has become a symbol of strength and resistance since the start of the war.
Other students who helped with the change drive included sixth-graders Kacie Piragis and Ella Reed. Because they were busy taking the MCAS exam, they were unable to meet to discuss the fundraising effort.
Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com.