 |
|
Harry Harlow is happy to help victims |
After the December 26, 2004 tsunami disaster, many people around the world felt the same way Lacey, WA, Horizons Elementary school teacher Georgie Niles did. “I kept wondering what I could do to help and a brilliant idea came to me!” said Georgie. “I could help but so could the 23 other people in my third grade classroom!”
Georgie’s idea was contagious. Before long, 700 students, faculty and staff joined her fundraising efforts for World Vision. “I went to the FirstGiving website and was led through a very easy process of developing a school website [http://www.firstgiving.com/HelpTsunamiVictims], said Georgie.
In addition to a school-wide brainstorming assembly, fundraising ideas have been flowing. Through penny-drives that doubled as math lessons, reaching out to the community through a neighborhood “cookies and hot chocolate” sale, and numerous donations, Horizons Elementary School has raised more than $1400 and has no plans of stopping. Many classrooms’ creative ideas are still in the pipelines such as read-a-thons and run- or walk-a-thons.
“One thing that I would like the victims of this tragedy to know is that our school will not give up!” said Georgie. “The FirstGiving website will be up and running until the end of the year, and then we will just renew it!”
Like Horizons Elementary school, Jamie Coats' four-year-old daughter from was inspired to action by the disaster and has raised more than $1,000 on her FirstGiving fundraising page for Save The Children’s Tsunami relief program.
Jamie's daughter was so moved by the plight of the King and Queen of Thailand, who lost a son in the disaster, she wrote them a letter and pledged to raise funds to help.
Jamie Coats said: “The process of fundraising was transformative for my daughter in that the experience wasn’t just about giving, but the emotion and passion behind the giving. We went to the bank and took out $1000 in $1 bills so she could visualize how much she raised.”
He added: “FirstGiving is incredibly powerful because it enables millions of small voices from all over the world to be heard and to help.”
Voices that included six-year-old Harry Harlow, from Wandsworth, London, who has bucked the trend by asking for NO birthday presents this year.
Instead, Harry’s friends have
donated to his online fundraising page at http://www.firstgiving.com/harryis6 to
help victims of the tsunami disaster.
“This year, I decided not to have any presents for my party,” said Harry. “I saw on the TV that lots of kids my age had their presents washed away by a big wave. And their food and their houses, too. My Mum asked me whether, if I was very hungry like them, I would rather have a hot meal or a present, and I said a hot meal.”
It took Harry just a few minutes to build his page for the Disasters Emergency Committee, personalize it with a photo and message and email it out to his friends. “Please ask your Mum and Dad to help you give something through this website,” says Harry on his page. “I have heard on the TV that every little helps, so whatever you can give, please give it.”
Harry’s mother Helen Harlow said Harry had been very excited to see the fund increase, reach, and then exceed the target he had set. “FirstGiving is a great way of making these kinds of donations fun and interesting for children,” she said.
James Grieve, marketing manager at FirstGiving, said Harry’s fantastic effort proves anyone, of any age, can use the internet to raise funds. “You don’t need any internet skills to build a page and it only takes a few minutes to get up and running,” James said. “It doesn’t matter how old you are or where you are in the world – FirstGiving allows you to raise funds easily for causes you care about.” |
