Idaho students celebrate role in helping young hurricane victims; Kids nationwide cheer during conference call

 Anna Webb

The Idaho Statesman | Edition Date: 12-02-2005

Choruses of kids' cheers from across the country filled the library at Koelsch Elementary on Thursday. Now, a couple things are clear. 

First, kids in Delaware are good screamers. Second, lots of American kids and teachers, including Idahoans, have been working hard in creative ways to help out the young survivors of Hurricane Katrina. 

Students have been holding bake sales and walk-a-thons. They've been gathering change in milk cartons. Teachers and principals have been subjecting themselves to carnival dunk tanks. One principal in Virginia dyed her hair fire-engine red to help raise dollars. A school group in California opened a Kool-Aid stand and raised $3,000. 

A national conference call Thursday linked students from Louisiana, California, Iowa, New Jersey and other states with young Boiseans who contributed through their own "Backpacks from Boise" effort. That project sent 600 backpacks filled with goodies, including stuffed animals, school supplies and letters to kids who lost their homes and schools. The project was the brainchild of Koelsch Elementary fifth-grade teacher Sue Austin. The first 300 backpacks went to McComb, Miss. 

Not only did McComb send a plaque to Koelsch naming the school its new "partner," it also included a DVD with images of the kids holding their new backpacks, a sight Austin called thrilling. 

Ajana Silvers, a Koelsch fifth-grader, summed up the conference call, which included a congratulatory message from former President Bill Clinton, in one word, "Awesome." 

The call included short speeches by students in Louisiana who told of being rescued in boats after the storm and of how helpful it had been to receive good wishes from other students. 

"Thank you for your love and care," said one child. 

Thirty students from local schools, including Koelsch, East Junior High and St. Joseph's participated in the call, the purpose of which was to announce how much money students have raised since the storm hit. That sum, which call organizers announced slowly, number by number, down to the 8 cents on the end, was $5,234,735.88 — $76,000 of which came from local Idaho schools and included the backpack donations.

Victoria Slichter, a seventh-grader from Fairmont, got the honor of announcing the Idaho contributions over speaker phone. 

She'd carefully highlighted her short speech so she wouldn't leave anything out. She was a little nervous, she said, at the idea that kids and teachers all over the country would hear her voice, but she was well-prepared, she said. Slichter, like the other students in the room, had filled backpacks with useful items. 

Dane Ozarslan, a Koelsch fifth-grader, said he wasn't surprised students had raised more than $5 million.

For his part, he bought a set of "30 markers, eight boxes of crayons and a few stuffed animals" for his backpacks.

 At the end of the call, which included scores of voices from Montana, Virginia and other places chirping, "good-bye!" "bye!" "good-bye!" everyone sang "God Bless America." 

The kids in Idaho and Montana got to solo on the line, "from the mountains." 

How the call came about 

The national phone conference started with the efforts of Talia Leman, a 10-year-old Iowa student who is also UNICEF'S national youth ambassador.

After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Leman helped launch a national Web site for schools across the country to report their relief effort collections. The Web site earned attention from the national media, and 4,000 schools logged on to the Web site to report their totals.

Thursday's conference call was an outgrowth of those reports. Organizers plan to continue the effort through the RandomKid Web site and organize a second conference call a year from now.