By By MIKELL FREY / Niles Daily Star
Thanks to a joint effort by the Niles High School student council and Spanish club, young Niles students are being given the opportunity to donate their lunch money to the tsunami disaster relief effort, starting Jan. 11 and continuing on through the week of homecoming, Jan. 24-28.
The idea to start the fundraiser came from Andy Welch, a junior member of student council and officer in the Spanish club.
Welch became inspired to help with the relief effort after watching a segment of The Power of One, a program on the school's student news program, Channel One, about a 14-year-old boy named Roshan Martinus. Martinus, born in Sri Lanka, not only appeared on Channel One, but set up a website encouraging others to become involved in his cause to raise money for his home country. Welch contacted Martinus through e-mail to talk more about it, and began to realize through his bold efforts that young people really can make a difference.
From there, Welch got the ball rolling by discussing it with head of student council Sue Rinehart, head of the Spanish club Pat Van Dalsen and his fellow student council and Spanish club members last Friday. Students from both organizations have and will be alternating turns with a collection jar outside the cafeteria doors. The grand finale of the fund drive will be a class competition to see which class can donate the most for the cause.
The organizations have set a goal of $1,000 for their fundraiser, but calculated that if every student were to give $2 the group will have well over $2,000.
Brittany Smith, a senior and historian of the student council, worked the first lunch shift on Tuesday at 10:45 a.m.
She, along with others, have put posters up around the building and made announcements to promote the drive. She hopes to raise a lot of money through the fundraiser.
Rinehart and Van Dalsen are both extremely proud of the action Welch and the others have taken in organizing the effort.
Van Dalsen hopes their efforts will rub off on others who haven't given as much consideration to the natural disasters that have devastated so many lives over the past year.
After the tsunamis hit on Dec. 26, killing 140,000 people in a dozen countries, Welch felt saddened by the disaster that took so many lives.
He will take his turns outside the cafeteria, asking his fellow classmates to spare a few bucks to help ease the pain of the people hurting overseas.
He plans to send the money raised at completion of the fundraiser to either Martinus' foundation, Care USA or the Red Cross.
In many ways Welch is a role model, for not only his classmates, but for everyone.
He has taken inspiration and driven it towards a wonderful cause.