Elementary students collect cans for charity

02/23/07 -- CRAIG EDWARDS  - PORTLAND, Ore.- Kids at one North Portland elementary school managed to collect more than 9,000 aluminum cans, all to help people they’ve never met.

Friday morning, students at Peninsula Elementary loaded the cans onto trucks. The school’s 6th grade class led the way, with about 1,800 cans collected.

Money earned from recycling the cans will go to Heifer International, a charity that helps communities in need around the world buy animals for farming. Peninsula students raised more than $600. They thought it was enough to buy a cow, and possibly a couple more animals for a village.

Volunteers Barbara Burnham and Carroll Hutchinson came up with the idea. School leaders said they saw it as a good chance to teach their students the value of helping others.

Some students found unique ways to collect cans.

"We drank em, a lot," said 6th grader Austin Wack.

Other students tried more traditional approaches, like going door-to-door and asking neighbors. The 6th graders did earn a trophy for collecting the most cans.

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