Girls Collect $1,000 For China’s Quake Victims

     Grace H. C. McLaughlin and Jacqueline M. Grabowski may only be in third grade but they have a business and marketing sense well beyond their eight years.
     This past school year, the girls managed to raise more than $1,000 for victims of the deadly earthquake that struck China in mid-May. Jacqueline is the daughter of Jason W. and Mary S. Grabowski of Pickerel Way, and Grace is the daughter of Marybeth and Patrick D. McLaughlin of Country Club Road.
     The idea to make such a compassionate gesture came from a brief conversation that the two friends had during snack time in their Forestdale School classroom.  Jacqueline asked Grace if she had heard about the really bad earthquake in China.  After responding that she had, Grace then suggested that they do something to help the victims.
     “We had seen some of the videos on the news, and it made us feel sad,” explained Jacqueline.
     Although Grace was adopted from China and her parents have instilled in her an appreciation for her heritage and birthplace, the girls said it was not that which prompted them to take action; it was the images of a school collapsing during the quake — a school where children their own age were injured.
     Wasting no time, the two girls got together at Grace’s home and began organizing their fundraising efforts. The first item of business was to come up with a name for their campaign. While the second graders may not have been familiar with the formal terms for marketing techniques, they had an innate sense of what sells and how to capture their audience. “First we thought we wanted to have two words that started with the letter C. Then we thought we should have two words that started with the sound Ch,” explained Jacqueline. They finally settled on the name Change for China.
     While some of their ideas to raise funds, such as holding a “hat day” at Forestdale School, where children would pay $1 to wear a hat in class, seemed logical and viable, the school’s administration thought such an event might create a bit of chaos in the school. So the girls decided to give each classroom in the school a plastic baggie in which to collect change. At the end of each week, the bags were turned over to the girls and they put all of the donated money into large water bottles. The two classmates created posters to hang inside the school and fliers to pass out explaining what they were doing. 
     They sent notes home in the school’s “Super Tuesday” folder, which goes home once a week with every student in the school. “It was amazing to see all of the money that came in after the Super Tuesday folders went home,” said Jacqueline.
     The event yielded more money than the girls had expected to collect and even though they had planned to finish the campaign at the end of May, with money still trickling in past that deadline, they continued collecting money through the middle of June, just before school ended. 
     “I couldn’t believe we were still getting money in June,” remarked Jacqueline.
     Ms. McLaughlin said the girls worked diligently and almost completely independent of adult help. 
     “From the very first day, they got right down to business and brainstormed. They were so well organized. It was amazing to see how well they were willing to negotiate,” she said.
     In fact, she and Ms. Grabowski stepped in to help only when something came up that required an adult. For instance, when the girls decided to hold a lemonade and cookie sale at the Holly Ridge Golf Club to raise money for their cause, Ms. McLaughlin helped out by calling the management at the clubhouse to ask for permission. She also approached the manager at Stop & Shop about getting cookies donated. Other than that, she said, the girls managed the entire fundraising effort completely on their own. Grace proudly announced that the lemonade and cookie sale brought in $111 for their cause.
     “They worked very hard,” Ms. McLaughlin said.
     In just under four weeks, the 8-year-olds managed to raise $1,070.18. On June 12, they presented a check to the American Red Cross, and each received a certificate from the organization recognizing them for their compassion.
     Ms. Grabowski said there is still money coming in for the cause and said that a friend of hers recently made a donation to the American Red Cross in the name of Change for China. 
     Anyone wishing to donate to the Change for China effort can call the American Red Cross, Cape Cod and Islands chapter, at 508-775-1540.