A group of third-grade students at Riverside Elementary School in Brainerd came together on their own to raise money for Hurricane Florence victims. The group created and dispersed boxes throughout the school to collect money to go to the Red Cross.

One day, Alli Johnson was watching the news with her parents when images of Hurricane Florence’s devastation came on the screen.

“I saw all those people and pets go without homes and I feel bad for them, so I wanted to give them a home, too,” said Alli, a third grader at Riverside Elementary who had the idea for the fundraiser.

She approached her third-grade teacher, wanting to do something to help.

“She had this idea and I said, ‘well, why don’t you go talk to our principal Mr. Clark and see what he can do to help,’” said Mary Schloemer, a third-grade teacher at Riverside Elementary. “So, she kind of took charge.”

“I was out on bus duty one day and I had a third grader named Alli Johnson who said, ‘I need to talk to you tomorrow,’ and the next day she came down to my office and said, ‘I would like to do a fundraiser for Hurricane Florence,’” explained Riverside Elementary School Principal Jonathan Clark.

With the help of her friends, they got to work making collection boxes to be dispersed in classrooms throughout the school.

“We want them to have wood and stuff to build their houses again and let the pets be happy,” said third-grade student Hayden.

The group of students had originally planned to wrap up their fundraiser by now, but when Hurricane Michael hit the Florida Panhandle, they decided to continue.

“I think it’s really cool to do it,” said fundraising member Calee. “Doing it with all my friends.”

The fundraiser has been a huge success so far.

“To have kids so young come up with an idea to help such a huge event in our world, and I thought it was just amazing,” added Schloemer.

“Just that caring opportunity. That we don’t have to be right in the same neighborhood, we don’t have to be right in the same state to care about those people in need,” said Clark.

The faculty at Riverside are proud of the students and how they have shown so much care for the hurricane victims.

“I just wanted people to know that this school cares for what happens every day around the world,” said Alli.

“If someone lost their house or lost all their food in Florence and they didn’t have anything to do, we could give them the money and the stuff that they need and then they would be all happy again, and that just makes people really nice,” said fundraising member Addison. “And if we do that, I feel like everyone else in the world will start doing that as well.”

By — Rachel Johnson

Lakeland News Lead Reporter