To Copper Basin Elementary School students Zachary Womble and Adam Barnett, Haiti seems like “a million miles away.”

Like students everywhere, Womble and Barnett have seen the television images of the death and destruction following the earthquake that left much of the impoverished island nation in ruins. Now they and other students at the school are learning that they can help ease the suffering of quake victims, by doing extra chores and donating their pocket change to disaster relief.

It is all part of the teaching process in Ms. Sharon Michaels Special Education Classes at Copper Basin Elementary.  Her 28 students in grade three though six have spent the last week learning about Haiti, its people and history, and discussing ways that children in a small mountain community more than 1300 miles away could help earthquake victims.  

“Their feelings about this are very emotional, very tender,” said Ms. Michaels. “They watch these horrible images of pain and suffering on TV every day, that make them feel really bad, and really sad.” Student Caitlyn Taylor described seeing a little baby “with broken arms and broken legs, really hurt bad.”  “I want to help children like that, and tell them that we love them,” said the Farner resident.

The big question facing the class, was how best to help. Their research had left these students well-versed on the basic needs of survival in a disaster…clean drinking water, food, medicine and sanitation. But the disaster also provided a lesson in geography and logistics.  The students debated collecting food and water, clothing and others supplies for use by earthquake victims.  But they quickly determined that loading up trucks with food and diapers and paying someone to ship them to such a faraway place would be expensive.

So these young students, like many other people across America, have decided to donate money to the Haitian Relief Effort. “That way the people there can buy what they really need,” observed student Paige Lamb from Farner.  The students are not soliciting contributions in the community. Rather they have committed to contributing their own funds, money from allowances or for performing chores around the house, or coins from their piggy banks. They are pooling together their nickels, dimes and quarters to donate to the American Red Cross.  They don’t expect to raise a huge amount of money…$100 would be “great,” $1,000 would be “fabulous.”  

As teacher Michaels explained, the total raised isn’t really the point. “It is really about the lesson that anyone can help,” said Ms. Michaels. “You don’t have to be a doctor, or be rich or be somebody important to volunteer. I want my students to come away from this with a lifelong feeling of enjoyment for helping others.”  That’s a message that this teacher’s young students seem to have already taken to heart. As Caitlyn Taylor put it, “It makes me feel proud to be able to give something to somebody who really needs it.”

According to their teacher, the earthquake in Haiti and the worldwide response to the disaster have also helped her students put things in their own lives in better perspective. “We’ve talked about the great rockslide of 2009 along the Ocoee like it was some major, major disaster,” said Ms. Michaels, whose daily commute from her Bradley County Home to Copper Basin Elementary has been doubled by the slide. “Then this terrible thing happens in Haiti, and our problems don’t seem so bad.” As her students have told her about the victims in Haiti, Michaels said, “one day, that could be us.”

Donations to the Haitian Relief Effort can be made to the International Relief Fund of the American Red Cross by dialing 1-800-RED Cross.