Schools
In Case You Missed It: Johnston Kids Put Competition Aside to Help Stricken Student
And while the Summit students helped a family in need, they also placed third in their category at the Odyssey of the Mind world competition in Ames.
A group of Johnston seventh-graders from Summit Middle School were in Ames last weekend for the Odyssey of the Mind world competition.
When a student from South Carolina suffered a seizure Friday, the Johnston youths put competition out of their minds, instead reacting with compassion, reports KCCI.com.
On Friday, the students put those lessons into action when a competitor, a boy from South Carolina, suffered a seizure in the middle of the Union Drive Community Center cafeteria during breakfast.
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The boy was there with his team, but his parents were back in South Carolina.
"I was thinking that wow, living halfway across the country and not having them there, having your first seizure, that would have been really scary," seventh-grader Charlie Hoekstra told KCCI as tears streamed down his face.
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Turning scary into strategy, the Johnston middle school students had a plan by noon.
"At lunch, we decided to go around and ask people to help donate and pay for medical expenses. We decided that was the best idea to help them the most. We made a poster and put it at the front of the cafeteria the next day. People just kept giving," seventh-grader Sara Siebrecht told the TV station.
"The first table we got, they all handed us tens and twenties and fives. It was a table of kids, and it was like, 'Wow. I hope we get that much every time,'" seventh-grader Cole Kramersmeier said.
As they learned the boy'd mother and grandmother needed to fly to Iowa, Johnston OM coach Kate Safris said the group decided to offer the money toward airplane tickets or medical expenses, whatever the family needed.
In the first half-hour, the group collected $500.
"By that next morning, we had $1,400 to give to them," Kate Safris said.
Patrick’s coach in South Carolina told News Channel 8 the boy is doing better, but the seizure is still unexplained.
The Johnston team finished third in its category; the competition teaches students to think creatively and solve problems.
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