Area students helping Marshall fire victims

Months after the Marshall Fire, many of those impacted are still coping with what happened. Area students, fundraising through schools and in conjunction with Niwot businesses, have been doing what they can to offer support.

Some of the major efforts happening currently are centered around school community groups. At Niwot High School, senior Mercer Stauch, President of National Honor Society and a full IB program candidate, is working with a team of Honor Society members on a classroom coin drive called Money for Marshall.

The unique effort is full of help, humor, a competitive spirit and a love of pranks.

Centering around collection jars placed in five classrooms, the effort seems typical – at first. Students contribute their spare change, as either coins or paper money, and a straight count of donation totals is tallied at the end of the drive.

A second count of the monies raised puts the "fun" in fundraiser. In this count, coins count positively but paper money counts negatively so a $1 bill reduces the total by a hundred pennies, for example.

The winning classroom has the highest total after both positive and negative tallies are meshed. Students can add more coins to a jar of a classroom they want to win or sabotage the jar with paper donations if they want it to lose. "It's more fun for students to sabotage other students than to contribute change," said Stauch, naturally.

The prize? The classroom teacher with the highest total gets to prank any of the other participating classrooms.

"We're capitalizing on the fun that teachers are already having," said Stauch. "Some of our teachers are already in a 'prank war' that involves stealing chairs from classrooms or putting a noisemaker in the ceiling." He added that because of the nature of the prize, winners won't be announced. Instead, all will be revealed once the final prank is unveiled on an unsuspecting classroom.

Nearby Silver Creek High School is doing its own fundraising. Joyce Kelly, vice president of RABC Raptor Activities Booster Club explained that the group collaborated with the Silver Creek Education Foundation and Silver Creek Organization for the Performing Arts, to raise money for the fire victims for a Valentine's Day fundraiser they titled 'Share the Love.'

"We know that our neighbor in the community was really impacted, and we wanted to help them out," Kelly said."We resold things for the holiday like roses, chocolate." The fundraiser also featured items from Happy Day Plants on Main Street in Longmont, owned by a Silver Creek High School family that arranged for them to purchase the product at cost. Another sold item came from Chai for Charities, featuring a recipe from a mom at Silver Creek.

The Silver Creek fundraiser garnered more than $1,600 profit, including a few last minute donations. Kelly explained that the spirit of the effort was just as impactful. "It wasn't just parents buying things, it was kids buying things to help as well. Some kids were volunteers and were helping to sell to other students too."

The support by area students isn't just a recent phenomenon. In January, Niwot High students were involved in a gear sale that was part of the Apres' Ski event and part of the Small Town, Big Heart Niwot fundraiser for fire victims.

In the same month, Niwot Elementary School and local bookstore The Wandering Jellyfish did their part, helping with a gift card drive that raised $390 in the store's gift cards.