Newsletter21

Here are more HERO stories gleaned from newspapers across the
country. I am sure there are thousands of others.
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VIA LEMONADE STANDS AND PENNY DRIVES, CHILDREN FIND THEIR OWN WAY TO HELP
By Ben Dobbin, Associated Press, 9/22/2001 14:52

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) They sell cookies and balloons door-to-door. They organize penny drives, car-wash clubs and even music concerts. All across the land, children are helping out as only they can. Six-year-old Anna Phillips was so determined to raise money for the families of the more than 6,000 victims of the Sept. 11 terror attacks that she persuaded her 12-year-old brother, Blair, and her 11-year-old sister, Kate, to set up a lemonade stand for her.
No easy task. "I didn't think she would get any money, but I was wrong," Blair said with a rueful smile Saturday.
The Phillips children asked for 25-cent donations, but many of their
neighbors in small-town Avon in western New York dug deeper. In a few hours, they had gathered $61 for the American Red Cross. "I gave it to the people who needed it," Anna said.
When children set their minds to a good cause, never doubt their ability to make a difference.
"It's a positive reaction to a tragedy it makes them feel good that
they're helping," said Liz Hill, director of development at the
Rochester chapter of the Red Cross.
In a typical year, the chapter usually collects less than $1 million. In
the last 12 days, it took in $3.7 million for stricken families and
rescue workers in New York City and beyond. Rochester's big employer, Eastman Kodak Co., donated $2 million.
At the Red Cross offices Saturday morning, Kristie Biehler, 12, and her next-door neighbor, Corina Gilardi, 13, dropped off $76 they earned from selling homemade pins made with red-white-and-blue ribbon. Kristie's impulse? "Because I felt bad."
"After I got the pins done I didn't feel as bad," she added.
"It was very difficult for her to turn on the TV," said her mother,
Dina. "Going out and doing something helped them get through it."
Six music bands made up of teen-agers planned to stage a fund-raising concert Sunday night at a church in Chili, a Rochester suburb. Across town, a "Peace for Pennies" drive at schools in Fairport was aiming to raise $1,000 that would be matched by Buffalo-based HSBC Bank USA.
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From The Idaho Statesman
Sept. 23, 2001
By Mike Butts

Rachel Tobey, a Meridian girl who cried the day after the attacks, and others, found some solace by helping raise money for victims of the
tragedies. Rachel and friends baked brownies and set up a table for
donations the Saturday after Sept. 11. They collected $120.
Codi Griffiths, 7, and Tyler and Tevin Manu, 8 and 6, put on costumes and played musical instruments up and down their street in Meridian, collecting $53 for the Red Cross. The Vipers, a Boise Noon Optimist football team of Eagle, Star and Middleton 11-year-olds, took a U.S. flag on the field at their game the Saturday after the attacks.
Spectators cheered.
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STUDENTS 'FLOAT' THEIR WAY TO HELP
Saturday, Sept 22, 2001 - 03:01:04 AM CDT

By VIRGINIA GRANTIER, Bismarck Tribune
A North Dakota town ran out of vanilla ice cream Friday morning.
Blame the kids. No, bless those kids. They apparently had a great hunger -- to help. This is what happened in Fort Yates, after the terror of Sept 11: Teachers saw how students were impacted -- saw students' tears and heard kids say how sad they were about the deaths, said teacher Kenda Johnson.

And they knew that these Standing Rock Elementary students wanted so badly to help.
So, this is what happened in Fort Yates this week:
They, teachers and kids and parents, decided to do something -- and ice cream was an important ingredient.
Parents and others ending up buying out town grocery store's vanilla
supply, and bought gallons of pop, so students would have the
ingredients needed to make hundreds of ice cream floats to sell to raise money for the American Red Cross.
That was one project. Students also made 200 patriotic ribbons that they sold for 50 cents. They sold out. Some customers went above and beyond, and paid $1 instead of the asked-for 50 cents.
Students also filled a 10-gallon aquarium with money from home -- from their piggy banks, in several cases
"I expected them to be generous," said teacher Julie Eder. "But I'm
overwhelmed by all the generosity of the entire community."
Standing Rock Elementary's first- and second-graders sold popcorn and made hundreds of floats -- sold between 400 and 500 at the elementary. First-graders went to the high school and sold another $375 worth. Then the local hospital staff called and said they couldn't leave the hospital, but they wanted floats. So students went to the hospital and sold another 30. And then there was the aquarium. Full to the top Friday afternoon. And part of its contents came from piggy banks. Like Derrick's bank.
Derrick Murphy, 7, had been collecting change for awhile. His goal was to buy a new bike.
Now, he has no money. He said it was a little tough, not an easy
decision, but it's what he wanted to do. So he poured it all into the aquarium. And Trent Silk, 5, was saving money in two banks at home. But he gave all his bank money away, too.
He hopes it is used for something specific, according to his
grandmother, Georgina White Lightning Yellow Hammer.
"He wants them to build two big buildings," she said.
At the end of the school day the aquarium was emptied and counted. A total of $1715.20 was will be sent for relief efforts in New York City
and Washington D.C.
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Sept. 16, 2001, 2:00AM
EFFORTS OF CHILDREN, CORPORATIONS RAISE CASH FOR CAUSE
By ROMA KHANNA
Copyright 2001 Houston Chronicle

Cub Scout Pack 987 planned a car wash to raise money for a camping trip, but after Tuesday's terrorist attacks the Scouts decided the victims needed it more. "We can do a fund-raiser for ourselves anytime, but we wanted to help someone else this time," said Greg Henry, a Scout leader who converted the pack's annual car wash into a citywide event Saturday, drawing more than 500 volunteers. The effort raised more than $20,000 -- including donations -- for the American Red Cross. Last week's devastation in New York and Washington, D.C., left many Houstonians with a sense of urgency and a need to help out in some way. From impromptu bake sales to corporate donations in the hundreds of thousands, people across the area were spurred to action.
"The people need help because a plane crashed on them," said 8-year-old Mickey Angel, outfitted in a Cub Scout uniform adorned with four American flags. He handed out red, white and blue ribbons at the car wash in Katy as Bruce Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A. blared over speakers from someone's truck.
Fund-raisers popped up on neighborhood corners throughout Houston on Saturday with everything from children selling baked goods to adults having cookouts, each a part of a grass-roots relief effort on behalf of people affected by Tuesday's terrorist attacks.
Elle Florescue and Molly Gilbert, fourth-graders at the Kinkaid School, raised $66 for the Red Cross in about an hour Saturday afternoon at their lemonade stand on the corner of San Felipe and Tanglewood. "Somebody gave me a $20 (bill) and said, `Keep the change,' " Molly said, beaming from behind a homemade cardboard sign. The girls sold regular and raspberry lemonade from their stand, decorated with a gingham tablecloth and American flags.
The girls said they watched reports about the attacks throughout the
week and talked in school about what they could do to help.
"This morning we asked them what they wanted to do today, and they said they want to have a lemonade stand," said Mike Gilbert, Molly's father. "It was totally their idea."
The Red Cross, which seemed to be the charity of choice for these
spontaneous fund-raisers, has noted the magnitude of the community outpouring.
"We have had everything from 5-year-old schoolchildren bringing us a pile of pennies to sophisticated corporate executives holding
fund-raisers," said Robbie Blanton, director of financial development
for the Red Cross.
More than 400 volunteered to help the Red Cross on Tuesday, a marked increase from the 40 who volunteer on an average day.
Local corporations also joined the fund raising. Compaq Computer Corp. donated $750,000 in cash and equipment to the Red Cross and United Way.
The company, which lost Boston-area employee Jeff Coombs in the World Trade Center attack, helped create a database to track people reported missing after the incidents. H-E-B Foods, which contributed $100,000 to United Way's relief fund, will distribute American flags and accept donations at grocery-store checkouts.
The relief effort will continue today when Rubberneck's Bar & Grill,
5810 Beverly Hill, will host a benefit and auction from 11 a.m. to 2
a.m. for the Red Cross and Firefighters Union.
"The lines got so long to donate blood that we started to talk about
what we could do to make a substantial difference," said Keri Myrick,
one of the bar's owners. "We decided to do something that only we could do."
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AMERICANS ! ! !

JBS