Grant Elementary travels to clean beach, recycle, garden
By LEE RAJSICH Special to the Daily Press
“Team” is the theme at Grant Elementary School this year and the motto appears to be working.
On Halloween, students raised more than $2,000 for the United Nations Children’s Fund while trick-or-treating — putting their school in the top 10 percent of all California schools who participated in the fundraising.
“We give back,” said Grant Elementary Principal Alan Friedenberg. “That’s definitely what Grant’s about.”
For the last five years, Grant Elementary has participated in the “Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF” program and has raised more than $9,000, earning the title, “Emissary,” the highest recognition by UNICEF, a global organization dedicated to improving the condition of children throughout the world.
Grant Elementary’s participation in the program has been resolute over the years, said Colette Storms, a co-founder and 11-year member of the school’s Community Service Learning Committee. Each year, two-thirds of the 675 student body carry a small, orange box door-to-door in the Santa Monica/Westside area for UNICEF when they go out on Halloween night.
3DA,“It’s a clever use of Halloween,” Friedenberg said. “For a quarter, someone is getting clean water.”
Each year, the trick-or-treating collections from across the U.S. are allocated to a different cause. This year, the money will help Iraqi children and women by providing supplies, such as clean water and health kits. In recent years, the money has helped reopen Afghanistan schools and fight Polio throughout the world.
Katie Scolari Borden, the regional program manager for UNICEF on the west coast, said the program “gives kids a fun and easy way to do something good for the global community.”
The day before Halloween, teachers distributed the small boxes to the students in their classes. After the kids take them trick-or-treating, they have one week to return them to their teachers. Community Service Learning Committee members then collect the change from the boxes and takes it to a change-counting machine at a grocery store, which sends the deposit directly to UNICEF.
In December of 1946, in an effort to provide food, healthcare and clothing to European children after World War II, the U.N. created UNICEF. Four years later, “Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF” was created in America. Since then, U.S. children have raised more than $118 million for the cause.
Scolari Borden attributes family traditions to “Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF’s” 53-year run. Many parents who collected for UNICEF while trick-or-treating as children are now getting their children involved, organizers say.
As a large, international organization, UNICEF has, in the past decade, been a target for groups such as the World Youth Alliance, who claim that UNICEF promotes sexual rights for children — including abortion — and therefore uses the “Trick-or-treat” program to support immoral goals.
Friedenberg has been careful not to become tangled in the political and moral debates surrounding UNICEF.
“All I see is the good that UNICEF has done,” he said. These kinds of issues are “not (Grant Elementary’s) concern, (Grant Elementary’s) concern is helping.”
Friedenberg notes that sometimes there is a beneficial trade-off between a big-name organization like UNICEF and the progress it is able to make in raising funds and support.
Grant Elementary also is proactively involved in local services. The CSLC and PTA groups at the school organize and fund “local service-learning trips” each year for every classroom. Riding Santa Monica’s Big Blue Buses, the students are able to participate in a number of activities beyond the classroom, such as beach clean-ups, recycling programs and gardening projects for homeless shelters and nursing homes. Also, last year they collected more than 700 toys during a holiday toy drive for needy children — an idea which came directly from the student council.
“The world extends beyond the four walls of the classroom,” Friedenberg said, explaining the importance of the students’ involvement in the community.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 18, 2003. Read the original PDF.