CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM Justin Callahan, 12, washed a car yesterday to help raise money for the children of Kaneohe Marines recently killed in action in Iraq. The car wash was coordinated by Amand El-Dakhakhni, senior class president of La Pietra-Hawaii School, with the goal of raising $50,000 for the Hawaii Marine Kids Fund, which she founded. Teachers say students have been inspired to help by the realization that the tsunami or war could just as easily have affected them.

Students learn
generosity is
contagious

Tsunami drives have raised
thousands, a few pennies
at a time

Every little bit counts. That's the lesson Hawaii kids from kindergarten through 12th grade have learned since a devastating tsunami hit 11 countries on Dec. 26.

Schools throughout the state are helping with tsunami relief -- some with penny collections, baked goods, candy sales and many other methods.

Students at Kaiulani and St. Patrick's schools, for instance, have raised thousands of dollars, one penny at a time.

At Kaiulani School the generosity of students is all the more special to Principal Charlotte White since 85 percent are poor and some are even homeless.

White said the "children came up with the idea of helping other children" on their own, with a goal of collecting "a million pennies," equivalent to $10,000, for UNICEF, the international relief organization for children.

After only a week, beginning the last week of January, they raised $516 scrounging pennies from neighbors and relatives and scouring the ground for loose change. As of Friday they had collected 176,000 pennies, or $1,760. Donations in other monetary units have amounted to about $400, she added.

"What's so amazing and touching," she added, is the way the school's neighbors -- including Tamashiro Market, Kaumakapili and St. Elizabeth's churches -- several organizations and individuals pitched in to help the kids because they did not want the students to be disappointed.

Jars of pennies people have had in storage have been brought in, and the "kids are so excited. ... Everyone's counting pennies and rolling them," White said.

CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM Amanda El-Dakhakhni, 17, washed a limousine yesterday at the fund-raising car wash she coordinated to benefit the children of Kaneohe Marines killed in action. Across the state, schoolchildren also have been raising money to help the victims of the Dec. 26 tsunami, many of them by collecting spare change from their families and neighbors.

Patricia Barros, support services coordinator of St. Patrick's School in Kaimuki, said 503 students from kindergarten through eighth grade raised $1,150.75 in two days for Catholic Relief Services. They challenged faculty and staff to match the amount, and with parents contributing they totaled $2,500.

The students all were eager to help the other children because "we live on an island as well. Some were a little frightened," Barros said, "because children were involved (in the disaster), and they are children, too."

Initially, students were all asked to donate just 75 cents, the cost of a soda or milk.

"It's a small amount to them, but they saw how when you put it all together, it can make a huge difference to someone else's life somewhere else in the world," Barros said.

Students from kindergarten through high school at Mid-Pacific Institute have raised more than $13,000 through bake sales, candy sales and collection buckets at both entrances to the campus, according to Scot Allen, director of communications. They exceeded their original goal of donating $10,000 to the Red Cross.

Waimalu Elementary School's 620 students "even raided their piggy banks because they really wanted to help," said school counselor Deanne Fu. They raised $1,400 in coins and bills for the Salvation Army's South Asia Relief Fund, established with First Hawaiian Bank, which has promised to match a donation up to $25,000, she said.