District 205 Students Raise Money for Disaster Relief

ELMHURST, IL — Catherine Disterheft’s three honors Spanish classes at York Community High School began the year learning about the power of community. During the next unit, on the power of creativity, Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico. The district said by the time the class moved on to its third unit, the impact of technology, Disterheft’s students had expressed a desire to do something to help the victims of Hurricane Maria.

Disterheft saw it as a perfect opportunity to use the lessons learned in all three units.

“We wanted to teach the students that thinking creatively is not always just art and music, but it’s also a way of solving problems that arise in our communities and arise in our country,” she said in a release. “I also wanted them to realize that they can use social media to positively influence others, and it’s not that difficult.”

The district said each of the three classes created a CrowdRise website to raise money for Red Cross Disaster Relief. Each class chose the title of its fundraiser, picked a fundraising goal, and wrote the fundraising story, in English and Spanish.

Within one day, the three webpages raised a combined total of $300. By Dec. 6, the pages had raised $1,175.

“I think that when they see a real-life purpose to it, when they can see their learning actually affecting others… it makes it more meaningful,” Disterheft said in a release. “I’ve noticed that they’ve been so on-task and motivated to reach their goals.”

According to the district, once the CrowdRise websites went live, students worked on spreading the word about their fundraising efforts to other York students and to the larger community. They had the option to create flyers for the school’s hallways, spread the word online or create a video to be broadcast by York TV.

“The fact that we all came together to work on such a big thing together is really cool,” high school junior Jessica Janowiak said in a release.

The CrowdRise pages will be active until Dec. 17. Direct links are as follows:

https://www.crowdrise.com/help-puerto-rico-now-ayuda-a-puerto-rico-ahora
https://www.crowdrise.com/o/en/campaign/lets-donate-unite-and-save-lives-hay-que-donar-unir-y-salvar-vidas
https://www.crowdrise.com/o/en/campaign/be-the-change-give-your-change-to-puerto-rico-se-el-cambio-da-tu-cambio-a-puerto-rico

Photos provided by District 205.