Wendell Brock - Tuesday, March 02, 2010

When a tornado ripped through Iowa’s Little Sioux Scout Ranch in 2008, the area was devastated both geographically and emotionally. Not only did the tornado level a building and destroy a forest, it killed a young Boy Scout named Aaron Eilerts.

In the aftermath of such a tragedy, Iowa Governor Chet Culver created “Aaron Eilerts Day of Service and Giving” on February 24, 2009, which would have been Aaron’s 15th birthday. Each year on this day, schools throughout Iowa are asked to practice the same kindness through service that Aaron had displayed throughout his life.

The Project
This year, with the Haitian earthquake fresh in the minds of students at Hinton Community School, they decided to help their peers in Haiti. An Internet search turned up CREED’s School Kits program, and the students decided to raise money to send kits to Haiti. Calling their project “10x10,” Hinton’s students set out to raise $100, or enough for 10 kits.

Every morning for a week, Student Council members stood in the school’s lobby and collected voluntary donations from students as they arrived at school. By the end, the students had smashed their $100 goal, and raised over $400!

The project was carried out by elementary students— ages six to 11—who saw a need and decided to fill it. CREED is honored to accept their kind donation and forward the school kits to children in Haiti.

The Need
For many children, CREED’s School Kits are the first step to an education. They provide the materials that students must have in order to attend school—materials that are quite simple and total just $10—but for many families are unaffordable or simply unavailable.

Each school kit contains:

• One durable cloth bag with handles and Velcro closure
• Three spiral-bound notebooks totaling about 450 pages of paper
• Four No. 2 pencils
• One pencil sharpener
• One box of 12 colored pencils
• One eraser
• One pair of children’s blunt-nose scissors
• One 12-inch metric ruler

Doing More
Hinton’s good work won’t end with their donation to CREED. In the spring, they will collect donations for the Children’s Miracle Network. In the fall, they will collect food for a local food bank. During the holidays, they will give donated items and wrapped gifts to a needy family in their community. Throughout the year, they help their school in little ways. As Hinton Counselor Mary Daniels says, “My council is very busy!”

For 2009’s Aaron Eilerts Day, Hinton students carried out two community projects: making fleece blankets for animals at the local Humane Society, and creating Sunshine Buckets for senior citizens. “Sunshine Buckets” are sand pails filled with stamps, playing cards, lotion bottles, and other small items to bring a little sunshine to a senior citizen’s day.

What You Can Do
If you’d like to help educate children we are continuing to collect funds for school kits.  We are in the process of helping the children in Haiti and In the near future we will ask for funds to help the children of Chile after the recent massive earthquake in their country.  You can help by following the example of the children of Hinton Community School by making a donation to CREED by clicking on the homepage.

Wendell Brock - Wednesday, January 27, 2010  

On Friday night, the “Hope for Haiti Now” telethon aired on 11 channels, and in two hours raised $53M, with more donations still coming in. This is a testament to the generosity of Americans.

The money will be distributed to seven charities: the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, UNICEF, American Red Cross,Yele Haiti, World Food Programme, Oxfam America, and Partners in Health. And over the next several months, these charities will provide much-needed food, water, medical care, and other services.

But after the telethons are over, and the resilient people of Haiti have begun to rebuild, their children are going to need an education. So while I admire those who’ve donated money for Haiti’s disaster relief, I am also asking you to support CREED, and make an investment in the future of the Haitian nation.

I ask you to do this without the bright lights of a prime-time telethon. Neither Madonna nor Bono nor Bruce Springsteen will perform and entreat you to donate. If you decide to give money to CREED, Steven Spielberg will not chat you up on the phone after taking your credit card number. But I promise we will not be any less grateful.

Since 2007, CREED has been distributing School Kits in the US and around the world, anywhere there are children who want to learn but lack the tools. Children can’t learn to write if they don’t have a pencil or notebook. Without an eraser, they can’t get rid of a mistake and write the correct answer—which is the learning process. And all it costs is $10.

In a few months we will begin sending our School Kits to Haiti. The 3.5M children of this impoverished island didn’t have much before this disaster, but now they have even less. If they have a school kit, then they will have at least one thing: the opportunity to learn.

Over 50 aftershocks have rattled Haiti in the last two weeks, further damaging the island’s infrastructure. Aftershocks of another type will continue to pummel this nation—temblors that hit at the Haitian psyche and confidence—unless they are empowered to improve lives and their nation. We at CREED believe that education is the way to do this. If you agree, I invite you to join us by clicking on the button below.

Now through February 28, any donations made to Haiti relief can be deducted from 2009 tax filings.