Student coin drive raises $501 for crisis in Japan

Palouse senior Ben Weagrass helped count coins for the drive.

Wanting to help with the relief efforts in Japan, school students in Palouse and Garfield spent five days digging through their piggy banks, dresser drawers, couches and their parent’s pockets. Penny by penny, the money came clinking in; $501.02 to be precise.

Their coin drive raised half the total contributions that have so far been made to the Whitman County Red Cross Disaster Relief for the crisis in Japan.

Jars and jars of coins lined the classroom of teacher Chris Bofenkamp when the drive was finished.

“It’s just amazing. I was very proud of them,” said Shanne Miller, director of the Red Cross chapter in Pullman, recipient of the drive proceeds.

“I was going to go pick up the little jars. But she insisted they deposit it in their bank and give us a check,” Miller said.

It took more than four hours for a team of Palouse High School students to count all the coins.

Bofenkamp said their school held a coin drive when the earthquake struck in Haiti in 2010. When news of the tsunami crisis in Japan hit, she and other teachers sent home notices with the children March 18. Her students came in with stories about emptying their piggy banks or their parents emptying their pockets. Last Wednesday, March 23, they collected the coins.

“Some of the kids in my class had their own piggy banks. Some of it was money they had saved themselves,” Bofenkamp said.

She pointed out the fundraiser was helpful on several counts.

“We thought, these people need help. It teaches the children to learn to be aware of other people in the world and show caring and compassion,” Bofenkamp said. “Not only do we want to help other people, we want to help our children learn that.”

Pullman Kiwanis Club and the WSU Red Cross Club are both running fund raisers for the Red Cross effort in Japan.

Miller said they have had several people from around the county call or walk in to make private donations to the disaster relief.

“I would guess right now just here in Whitman County we’ve received about $1,000,” she said.

Ninety cents of every dollar goes directly to the crisis on the ground, she said. The Red Cross is not sending personnel to Japan at this time because of the issues with radiation. Financial donations, not physical goods, are the best donations to give at the moment, Miller said.

“Right now, there is a lot of stress and worrying over the disaster in Japan. I believe strongly in doing positive actions instead of worrying about what you can’t control,” Miller said. “In this case what we can do to help these victims of this horrible disaster, is to send money for them.”

The Colfax Rotary Club is also actively working to help the situation in Japan. The club is donating a temporary shelter which costs $1,000. It is also giving donations from individual members and from local residents to purchase additional shelters.