By Shawn Hogendorf, Correspondent 

What started back in March with $50 bills to 15 Twin Oaks Middle School students has blossomed into more than $4,500 in charitable giving.

The “Big Give” was a project that turned Twin Oaks students and teachers into philanthropists. The selected group has completed the community service and reported back on what they did with the money.

With $50, students and staff set out to make an impact in their corner of the world by helping others in need. Students and staff came up with a variety of ideas ranging from helping animals by donating to the Humane Society to making teddy bears to donate  them to police to give to children taken out of traumatic situations.

Student donations

Some kids helped animals, eighth-grader Stacey LaFrance of Savage purchased ingredients to make treats for pets. Then, with a little help from her friends, LaFrance made the treats, went around town selling them and donated the profits to the Carver-Scott Humane Society.

Seventh-grader Hannah Jacobson of Prior Lake held a food drive at school and a garage sale in her neighborhood to raise additional money. Jacobson then took the money she raised and split the donations between the Minnesota Zoo and CAP Agency. Seventh-grader Anika Agerlie of
Savage lays amongst teddy bears
col-lected from Wacky Bear store in
Burnsville Center. Agerlie spent
two days recruiting people to buy
and make teddy bears that she
donated to the Burnsville Police
Department.

Other students also chose to help children through their donations.

Seventh-grader Anika Agerlie of Savage won a $50 Visa gift card, which she said she plans to donate to a charity. She won for creating and carrying out the “Big Give” project with the most impact.

Agerlie purchased materials from Wacky Bear at Burnsville Center to create stuffed animals and donated them to the Burnsville Police Department to give to children while they are in squad cars or interview rooms after being removed from traumatic situations.

Agerlie turned her money into 103 stuffed animals, which are worth about $1,300 in retail value.

Seventh-grader Elizabeth Williams of Prior Lake took to the streets to ask local business to donate items. Williams then sold the items for profit and donated the money to the Alpha Women’s Center. She raised $450 to buy and donate nine car seats and also donated gift cards she received to Alpha.

Sixth-grader Erin Finneman of Savage donated diapers and clothes for children to the Alpha Women’s Center. Eighth-grader Matt Crist made a donation to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Sixth-grader Hannah Silva-Breen of Prior Lake purchased materials to make fleece blankets, made the blankets and then donated them to the Scott County Crisis Nursery.

Sixth-graders Matt Malaske and Alex Wehrs, both of Prior Lake, teamed up to donate money and time to Feed My Starving Children. The duo also donated $100 to World Vision, a non-profit organization that helps build water wells for Third World Countries. The $100 will help 1,000 children in those countries, Malaske said.

Sixth-grader Wyatt Wiseman of Prior Lake also decided to donate to Feed My Starving Children by organizing an after-school trip for students to go to work at the organization on May 27.

Seventh-grader Nick Scherer of Prior Lake purchased birthday cakes, candles and cards to create birthday bags for people who may not have the chance to enjoy the birthday festivities. Scherer then donated the bags to the CAP Agency.

Children weren’t the only people on the minds of the giving students and teachers.

Eighth-grader Tess McKeen of Prior Lake turned her $50 into $340 by donations from friends and family that she gave to Minnesota Hospice in memory of her grandmother. Eighth-grader Charles Emory of Savage used his $50 to buy supplies and create care packages for soldiers abroad through Operation Minnesota Nice. Eighth-grader Nhu Lee of Prior Lake created raffle tickets that were sold at the eighth-grade dance and gave the profits to Miracle Flight, a company that provides transportation for patients to get to hospitals and clinics.

Staff donations

Students weren’t the only ones who decided to help children with their community service projects.

Seventh-grade math teacher Vicky Hilzendeger used her students as resources and held a pajama gathering contest to collect 60 pairs of children’s pajamas to donate to Project Night, Night.

Tim Johnson, a Twin Oaks math and science teacher, made inspirational books for students in the middle school, in addition to buying clothes for a boy in need. After helping the boy out with clothes, Johnson asked that the boy “pay it forward” by tutoring a younger student.

Nathan Dapper, a Twin Oaks social studies teacher held a raffle that raised $300 to be donated to Soldier’s Angels.

 Shawn Hogendorf can be reached at shogendorf@swpub.com.