Schools
Howell Students' Origami Creations Raise Nearly $1,400 To Aid Puerto Rico
The fifth-grade students learned some lessons about running a business while raising funds to help with hurricane relief.
HOWELL, NJ — A group of fifth-graders in Howell turned their desire to help the people of Puerto Rico who were devastated by Hurricane Maria into a school project and have raised more than $1,300 for recovery efforts, a school official said.
“The Puerto Rico Project” was the brainchild of the fifth grade Project GOAL class at Newbury Elementary School in Howell, said Ray Gredder, the school's vice principal and supervisor of its gifted and talented programs.
Gredder said Lisa Oliver's students had seen reports of the devastation caused by Hurricane Irma on the news and approached her, wanting to make an impact.
Find out what's happening in Howellfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
"With that in mind, they researched a charity, created a business plan and set a goal," he said.
The Project GOAL students (GOAL stands for Great Opportunities for Advanced Learners) chose United for Puerto Rico, a charity set up and founded by Beatriz Rosselló, the wife of Puerto Rico’s governor. The class then created a business plan, he said. They wanted to spend as little as possible on materials so they could make as much profit as possible, and settled on selling custom-made origami.
Find out what's happening in Howellfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Oliver's class created origami pieces at home over the weekend and in their free time, then started selling their pieces in the lunchroom, where students could choose from single pieces to custom 2 for $5 baskets of origami, Gredder said.
"They created origami stars, necklaces and even enlisted their art teacher, Donna Gaszynski, to help create some custom origami earrings," he said
Their initial goal was to raise $500, but they quickly blew past that as well as their readjusted goal of $700, he said. At the end of seven days — the time limit they set for their project — they had raised $1,372, Gredder said.
"It's an amazing total from such humble beginnings," he said. "Mrs. Oliver has always taught her students that part of their work is to leave their 'footprint' as she says and this has been a great example of it."
Photos provided by Howell Township School District
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
