Pleasanton Kids Turned 8K Jelly Beans Into $1K For Fire Victims

PLEASANTON, CA — A fifth grade class in Pleasanton raised almost $1,300 by selling thousands of jelly beans to help students in Butte County affected by the infamous Camp Fire. Through a program called "Color A Classroom With Love," Kerry Mattimore's class at Hearst Elementary School recently adopted a fifth grade class at Pine Ridge School in Butte County.

Although Pine Ridge did not burn down, the campus lost portables used for their after school programs. One of the students' two teachers lost their home in the deadly fire which ripped through the towns of Paradise, Magalia, Concow and parts of Chico, turning much of Butte County to ash.

The Fairfield-based Jelly Belly Candy Company happily donated 8,000 jelly beans to the cause and classroom parents covered the costs of jars. Mattimore's students decorated and packed Valentine's-themed jars with the jelly beans and made posters.

The crafty little entrepreneurs spent two Saturday mornings standing in the rain selling the jars at the Pleasanton Farmers’ Market. Parents who helped staff the sales table said many locals stopped by just to donate cash to the worthy cause without taking any jelly bean jars.

The funds were used to purchase headphones, a rug with a map of the United States on it, and a bean bag chair for their room’s reading corner in an effort to make the portable feel more like a classroom. The Pleasanton students will continue to stay in contact with their adopted class as pen pals.

The historic Camp Fire began in Butte County on Nov. 8 and quickly spread across 240 square miles killing at least 85 people and displaced thousands more. Most of Paradise was charred within 24 hours. Nearly 19,000 buildings, mostly homes, were destroyed. It was the nation's deadliest and most destructive wildfire in a century.

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