Elementary Pupils Raise $960 for Rwandan Refugees

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but a photo of a Rwandan refugee in Zaire is worth almost $1,000 in nickels, dimes and quarters collected in a student coin drive at Pacific Elementary School in Manhattan Beach.

A newspaper picture of an emaciated teenager squatting in a refugee camp inspired the Student Council to launch a money-raising drive in all grades to help those fleeing the killing in Rwanda. The students today are presenting a $960 check to the Red Cross.

“I thought the photo was really sad,” said Student Council President Renee Siemak, 12. “I really wanted to help them.”

The council made a flier with the picture of the skeletal 14-year-old refugee. In early May, it was distributed to fourth through sixth grades. Lower grades got a flier that substituted a heart drawing for the photo.

By the end of the one-week coin drive, the school’s 715 students generated four backpacks worth of coins.

“It made me feel good to raise money for all those people,” said Student Council Treasurer Kevin Halcomb, 12.

The school had its first coin drive in 1993, when $1,082 was raised for Malibu families whose houses were burned and did not have insurance. Last year the students raised about $500 for Glendale firefighters injured in brush fires.