By Sammi Yelkin
On the first week of school most of us were worrying about little things such as schedules, where our classes are and which friends are in our classes. While this was happening a neighborhood family was worrying about putting their life back together after a tragic fire that took everything away from them.
Nothing valuable was saved. Red Cross Club sponsor Richard Jackson said, “The only thing that was saved were the clothes the family was wearing when they evacuated the house.”
The family has been living in hotels and with their friends because they have nowhere else to go. Many students in Lincoln High knew the kids who were living in the house, because they grew up in the neighborhood. And even though none of the family members went to Lincoln High, LHS students and staff stepped up to help them.
Senior Cheyanna Kempel, the Red Cross president, approached Jackson to see if they could hold a fundraiser for the family, which started on the second week of school and only lasted three days (Monday-Wednesday). They collected over $700. They collected money before and after school and during lunch. Tuesday is when the club made the most money because of the Advisory classes. Red Cross officers went around to the different Advisories and collected money.
The overall goal was to raise $700.00 and they hoped to get even more. The club raised a total of $762.18, achieving and passing their goal. The day the club took the money to the family at Union Bank on August 30th only the officers, Trey Anderson, Caitlin Holman and Rian Quinn, and the president Cheyanna Kempel went. They all went because they wanted to, not because they had to. “Bobbie Jones, the mother, was very overjoyed and overwhelmed with the generosity of the Lincoln High students and staff,” states the Lincoln Journal Star.
