Chores for Cash

July 06, 2008

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Chores for Cash

by Susan E. Davis
reviewed by Robert Needlman, M.D., F.A.A.P.

St. Simons Island, Georgia . . . Every Friday, the 400 children at St. Simons Elementary gather for an assembly at their school on this scenic barrier-reef island off the Georgia coast. On the Friday after the September 11th attacks, principal Stephen Elrod challenged his students to see how much money they could gather to contribute to the American Red Cross's relief efforts. There was only one caveat: The children couldn't just ask their parents for the money; they had to earn it. "I wanted them to feel like they had really worked for the relief efforts," Elrod explains.

The students had until the next Friday--just seven days away--to complete their activities. Some washed cars for teachers behind the school. Some built and staffed lemonade stands in their neighborhoods. Some did yardwork for neighbors and many did household chores for their parents. One boy and his family made chocolate chip cookies to sell.

Casey Combs, age nine, says that she "worked in the yard a little bit, picking up twigs and pinecones that blew down in a storm. I also folded clothes and took care of the babies at my grandmother's church." Her six-year-old brother, David, did yardwork, too, but another fundraising venture didn't quite turn out as planned. "I tried to make pretzels to sell, but they came out nasty," he says with a grimace. "Too much salt."

Elrod had hoped the children would earn $1,000 in a week. Instead, the kids ended up earning $3,200. "As they came in for the next Friday's assembly, they gave their money to two student council members who were holding big bowls out," Elrod says. "There was so much money we had to get many more bowls to hold it all."

Best of all, notes Elrod, the children knew they were doing something to help. "These kids had just been inundated with media reports of the disaster," he says. "Most of their parents were giving blood, because that was really the thing to do that first week. But children couldn't give blood. As a faculty, we saw the kids needed to do something to help themselves and the relief efforts."

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Created September 27, 2001
Reviewed October 01, 2001

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