Vassar Haiti Project

Solange Boucher, a rising 7th grader at Vermont Catholic School in Barre, Vermont, shows us the power of perseverance and good will  as she set up a fundraiser at her middle school to help raise money for children in Chermaitre. Age does not matter when you’re trying to make a difference! 

My name is Solange, and I am 12 years old.  I am going into the 7^th grade at Central Vermont Catholic School, in Barre, Vermont.   My class and I raised money for the Vassar Haiti Project and I wanted to share how we did it with you!

My mom and I had just gotback from the 11^th Annual Vassar Haiti Project Art Auction and Sale held at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie.   I told my class all I knew about the VHP.  My teacher, Mrs. McKinstry, asked my whole class, if they would like to hold a fundraiser for the children of Chermaitre.  Everyone in my class was enthusiastic.   At my school, community service is very important.

My class then discussed what would be a good fundraiser.  Somebody suggested a dunk booth.  Everybody loved the idea.  We researched the dunk booth, and found it was $100 to rent.  We first held a bottle drive to raise money for the booth.  It was a miserable rainy day, and because it was rainy- we only raised $50 in cans and bottles.  Then, we held a dance for the 4^th thru 8^th grade classes.  We raised enough to rent the dunk booth.

We decided to get the dunk booth for our school’s Field Day- to be held June 1^st.

In the mean time, I made a donation jar, for random donations, which we kept in our class room.  We asked people to bring in their spare change.   In May, we held our annual Spring Concert at school.  We set out the donation jar and made a display board describing what VHP was all about.  That night, we received a LOT of money through donations.  Somebody even donated a $50 dollar bill!  We all thought that was pretty cool!

Before we knew it, it was June 1^st.  And the dunking booth came.  The whole school was pretty excited!  The school goes from preschool to grade 8.  Everybody was allowed a free throw to try to dunk one of the 4 teachers who volunteered; the principal, and the school cook.  Students could buy lots more “throws” for $1.  It was a very fun day!!!

The younger kids had their turn in the morning and the older kids in the afternoon. There was fierce competition to dunk the 4^th grade teacher, and the principal!  At the end of the day, my best friend Anna and I counted the money with Mrs. O’Mahoney, our principal.  Before the dunking booth, we had raised around $200 dollars. Post dunking booth: over $760.00!  We made almost triple what we had been going for and we only have about 100 kids at our school!

This experience taught me that even a 7 person class can make a difference.  That just one person telling other people about a worthy cause can make something happen.  In the beginning, we didn’t even expect to make the $325.  It’s really amazing!

Solange Boucher,

7^th Grader

Central Valley CS

Barre, Vermont