Golden Springs Rallies to Raise over $4500 for Japan

Riley Polanski remembered Haiti. The Golden Springs fifth-grader and his mother Rachele had organized a fundraiser at the school to raise over $3,000 in 2010 and Riley wondered if it would happen again.

Seeing the images of the earthquake that ravaged northeastern Japan on March 11, it was Riley's first response.

And so, his mother Rachele called principal Alan Pantanini and a two-day fundraiser was in motion. By the end of two days, the Polanskis' initiative helped the school to raise over $4,633 to donate to Red Cross relief efforts.

"I got into the classrooms and had first graders asking if they can donate 10 cents," Polanski said, "and now they are at the age where I feel they understand that as they grow up, they can actually help other people. Sometimes they aren't given that opportunity."

Polanski said she could see students begin to feel that they had done something to help in the wake of the catastrophe.

Third grade teacher Nami Kobayashi's class came out strong with a contribution of $614.39 to the cause.

During an after-school movie screening, Kobayashi — who goes by "Ms. Nami" — said one student asked if he could donate money he had on hand to buy snacks.

"I told him to think about it and come back later if he still wanted to donate," Nami said.

It was just a few minutes before the student returned, resolute about donating to help.

"They're little kids but they have huge hearts," Nami said.

The disaster has a personal impact for Nami, whose family all lives near Osaka in the southwest, far from the epicenter of the quake.

Nami said the earthquake and aftershocks still rattled her parents' home, but they suffered no injuries or structural damage.

"I talked to my parents Friday morning and knew everything was fine," Nami said, "but the kids came in in the morning and some of were pale and worried sick and came in to ask if my family was okay."

Nami said she spoke to the entire class at the beginning of the day, reassuring students and speaking to them about the disaster.

Not everyone was behaving, but it was a teachable moment.

"Some of the students said they saw people getting washed away and some kids kind of snickered at that," Nami said. "But when I told them that this was not a video game, and this is not a movie, it made it a reality that this actually happening in the world."

Nami said she had a similar discussion with her students last year about the earthquake that ravaged Haiti.

"Someone brought in an article showing the picture of the damage and the six-year-olds were really blown away that this can happen," Nami said. "The unfortunate thing is that it instills some fear in them and it took a lot of 'we're going to be okay' and 'we're fine.' It's just hard to crowd control when it comes to a group of 32."

Nami said she is still getting a daily email from her parents with updates and some students have continued to ask about making donations.

An earlier article at Patch details .