Market benefits charities

Pegasus School students celebrated International Earth Day with an Entrepreneur World Market, in which students in the third through fifth grades sold products and services to each other to raise money for charity.

The school’s long-running annual market normally benefits just one organization, but this year, the school decided to donate some of the proceeds to Heifer International and some to the American Cancer Society.

The latter beneficiary was announced in memory of the school’s founder and Principal Laura Hathaway, who died earlier this month following a long battle with cancer.

One of the most popular sale tables at the world market Friday was partially inspired by Hathaway’s legacy.

A group of fourth-graders sold colorful pencil cases, snack bags and other bags that are created in the Philippines from unused juice pouches, which are given to a women’s cooperative by juice container manufacturers around Manila.

Gabriela Goffman, 10, first discovered the Bazura Sac products while on vacation in the Caribbean. She purchased a couple for herself, then decided to offer them to her fellow students at the Earth Day market.

She was especially driven to become a successful entrepreneur when her principal died.

“I wanted to make a donation to fight cancer in her name,” she said, but knew she could make a larger impact through selling the products.

Kendall Kurzweil, 10, has been deconstructing T-shirts since she was in kindergarten; she hated their boxy, boyish shape, so she and her mother began adding rhinestones and cutting the shirts to be more flattering. She sold her creations to girls at the market who wanted a cute alternative to the school’s Friday jeans-and-T-shirt relaxed dress policy.

Fourth-grader Nathan Moore recorded himself reading popular kids’ books on CDs that he sold to his classmates, and Randon and Max Davitt chose to sell two video games they created while attending a technology camp.

They sold “Tsunami” and “The Sky Adventure” for $3 each, or $5 for both; students — mostly boys — who wanted to try them out could play a sample level on the Davitts’ laptop.

Other world market products and services included handmade stress balls, piñatas, candles and duct-tape wallets; body stamping, carnival games, flowers planted in recycled bottles, and necklaces made from bottle caps and pieces of license plates.

One booth created bird feeders made from pine cones covered in bird seed; another sold packets of ladybugs to combat aphids in home gardens.

The fifth-graders created and sold eco-friendly cleaners under the “Pegasus Products” label, including shakers of baking soda scented with essential oil to clean countertops, and room spray made of club soda and essential oil.

The school’s green committee ran several craft booths, where kids could tie-dye T-shirts with tea, plant seeds for the Second Harvest Food Bank or get their faces painted with “green” paints.

And many fourth-graders created a farmers market to sell lettuces, radishes, carrots and other items from their own school garden to an eager group of parents.

The school’s middle-school-age students began the day with skits and songs about the ecological footprint created by the American lifestyle, offering ways to reduce it.

Reporter CANDICE BAKER can be reached at (949) 494-5480 or at [email protected].