ShawneeDispatch.com

Mize Elementary School students donated $388.46 last week to help raise funds for African AIDS orphans.

After listening to Schaun Colin, founder of Oceans of Mercy, the organization that provides an orphanage in South Africa for children whose parents have died of AIDS, students in the HAWKS service club voted to donate to the group.

Morgan Koelzer, De Soto fifth-grader and president of the service team, and Alan Maxville, Shawnee fifth-grader, said Colin's visit made an impression on the students.

"I think it's great the way that they're helping all these kids that don't have parents," Morgan said.

Alan agreed.

"I thought it was cool how they were one big family, and I felt that we could raise money for them."

The service team publicized their "Change to Change" fund raiser during the school's "Dinner Theater," in which students talk about the day's events onstage during lunch in the cafeteria.

Morgan said jars in every classroom were quickly filled for donations to children in the orphanage. She said many of her fellow students wanted to give up their toys for the South African children.

"(Colin) told us they need food more than they need toys because they don't always have enough for them," she said.

Oceans of Mercy is well-known in the community for its "Run for Mercy," which has taken place at Mill Valley each spring for the past three years. The organization has plans to build a school in South Africa for their children and hopefully a community center.

Monica Wooten, faculty sponsor for the service team, said she was surprised by how much the Mize students remembered about their talk with Colin.

"They really are committed to helping others," Wooten said of the Mize HAWKS club.

The service club, which has about 30 students, collects pop tabs for the Ronald McDonald House, collects toys for the De Soto Multi-Service Center around Christmas time and collects cans for the center in the spring.

Jan Weber, volunteer, said the Mize donations would help the African orphanage much more than they realize.

"They're making a change for kids that have nothing," she said. "In Africa, some of these kids don't have shoes on their feet."