Woodside Elementary School fourth-graders have been hard at work raising funds to help a Guatemalan community develop a clean-water distribution system. Students in Abby Janssen’s class put together more than 1,000 bags of trail mix that they sold during lunch. The class raised $653 during the one-week project.
The money went to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Engineers Without Borders organization that is working on a project that will bring clean water to the community of Quejchip, Guatemala. The project also includes building a hand-washing station and latrines for the local school. Janssen will travel to Guatemala with others from Engineers Without Borders this June to work with the rustic community.
Families of the fourth grade students contributed all the supplies necessary to make the trail mix. Students worked hard to make the project a success.
“My class has been devoted to the project, skipping recess to make signs promoting our sale, spending time practicing announcements and writing blurbs to send in Friday Folders,” Janssen said.
Each lunch hour, five students sold the mix and the class counted the money together.
“We have had many meaningful math lessons graphing different types of money, discussing supply and demand, looking at projections for profit and discussing marketing and pricing of products as well,” Janssen said.