| Crafting Help |
|
Cassidy Donaldson, 7, had an idea to help children who were starving in Sudan. Kids sell hand-made cat toys to benefit Sudanese families
Aurora Jensen, 7, and Cassidy Donaldson, 7, create cat toys that they sell for the price of donating a goat to a family in Sudan, Africa. Cassidy came up with the idea when she learned about the plight of Sudanese families and the benefit of donating goats instead of money. When Cassidy Donaldson visited Corvallis Montessori School last December, the class of 6- to 9-year-olds was preparing a presentation for the school's Martin Luther King Jr. Children's Celebration. That's when she first became interested in the topic of slavery. In January, she enrolled at the school and helped the class prepare for the celebration.The 7-year-old learned that slavery still exists in some places, and one of those places is Sudan. The more she learned about Sudan, and the plight of children there, the more she became filled with a need to help the starving and impoverished families she was learning about. "They have been driven out of their villages by war," she said of the children in Sudan who she hopes to help. "She started raising money, and I was unaware of it, " her mother, Kathy said with a laugh. "She had collected $105." Although Cassidy knew she wanted to help, she wasn't sure exactly how to turn her fund-raising into direct aid, so Kathy started researching organizations online, and sending e-mail inquiries. The first organization to write back was Kids for Kids, and Kathy was pleased because they wrote back directly to Cassidy, not to her mother. "I thought, 'Yes, this is the charity I want to go through,' " she said. Kids for Kids provides goats for families in Sudan through a revolving project. Each family receives five nanny goats and one billy goat, and after two years, they're expected to give six kids from the flock to another family, to keep the cycle going forward. "We don't give them money because they'd run out of money," Cassidy explained. But goats breed and continue to provide benefit to the family. Each goat costs $21, so Cassidy decided to make something that she could sell for $21, a product that she'd designed herself. The idea struck her after she took a tour of Soft Star Shoes in Corvallis, and was allowed to take home some leather scraps from the business. She turned the scraps into a cat toy that features a round leather head with designs made of different colored scraps, and which has a long furry tail. "I don't think just selling little scraps would be very interesting," Cassidy explained, so she focused all her artistic energy into making each one different. She even names each cat toy, including her favorite, a mustachioed mischief maker named "Mr. Google." Cassidy began enlisting the help of her friends to make the cat toys, including Aurora Jensen, also 7, and a classmate at Corvallis Montessori School. "She invited me over to see her cat toys, and I got into making them," Aurora said. The Montessori philosophy encourages children to act with independence and focus on meaningful work. Cassidy"s project is exactly in line with those teachings. It takes 45 minutes to make a cat toy, which Cassidy calls "Playful Pancakes," and so far, she and her friends have made 44. Including monetary donations she"s received, Cassidy has now raised $1,410.66, or enough to buy 67 goats and benefit 11 families in Sudan. Her goal is to help 100 families, but if she meets that she said she"d like to help 8,000. "When I first saw her, her goal was to help every family in Sudan," Aurora said. "We'd have a party that day," Kathy said. Tricia Salcido, co-owner of Soft Star Shoes, first met Cassidy because she and co-owner Larkin Holavarri are long-time friends of her mother, Kathy. When Cassidy shared her project with them, they were sold. Now they not only give her as many scraps as she needs, they set aside special pieces for her, and they've put her cat toys on the Web site to increase her sales. Cassidy says she sells more cat toys on the Web site than anywhere else. "We donate the time for processing orders and shipping and handling," Salcido said. "Soft Star Shoes has always been about kids," Salcido said, and helping a local kid do something for kids across the world fits with Soft Star Shoes' vision. Cassidy has sold cat toys at the Philomath Celebration, the Corvallis Montessori School's Spring Carnival and even made a presentation at the local Lions Club. This summer, she plans on continuing to make cat toys, and perhaps adding a lemonade stand to her fund-raising activities. Kathy admits when she first heard Cassidy's plans, she wasn't sure that her project would last more than a week. But months into it, her drive doesn't appear to be faltering. Sometimes, Cassidy will be in bed, and will tell her mom she's feeling hungry, but instead of asking for something to eat, she'll begin talking about how children in Sudan have to go on with those feelings of hunger. "I'm really surprised," Kathy said. "I'm half excited and half overwhelmed. She's just very persistent with it." To help To order a Playful Pancake cat toy, go to http://www.softstarshoes.com To learn more about Kids for Kids, go to http://www.kidsforkids.org.uk To give a direct donation to Cassidy Donaldson's project, go to http://www.justgiving.com/cassidylynn *Of Goats and ChildrenWe're fascinated with how Cassidy's ideas demonstrate so much about the second level of development, and how the carrying out of the project fits in with the Montessori elementary curriculum.Children at about age 6 begin to imagine, for instance, distant places and future possibilities: Cassidy's ideas were sparked by learning about slavery in history, and about Sudan today. They focus on justice and are puzzling out morality: she was touched deeply by the suffering of others. They are beginning to use logic and reasoning, and can think in the abstract: Cassidy started considering what she could do that would have what effect. They have the capacity for "great works" - which involve developing an idea into action, with prolonged effort and an interdisciplinary approach. Cassidy has been exploring resources, refining her plan, and persisting in its development. She's employed artistic, social, financial, mathematical, geographical, and other studies and skills. Interactions with peers are all important at this age; Cassidy interested some friends and brought them in, and the collaborations have involved ongoing negotiations, some of which call upon the emotional stamina that typically builds at this age. Children of 6-12 are finding their place in their local community and also exploring they fit into the world community. We celebrate how each of our CMS children demonstrates these emerging characteristics at the second level of development. The goat project is one example of diverse activities that are encouraged and supported daily in the Gingko and Ponderosa environments. |
| Latest News |
|---|
