Greenfield Middle School Hi-Y students, pictured here on April 18 along with teacher and advisor April Molloy (second from right), present the more than $1,300 they raised in a weeklong coin collection fundraiser to help the Greenfield Police Department purchase a K-9 officer.
Submitted photo
Middle school students in Greenfield recently raised a sizable sum to help the Greenfield Police Department purchase a K-9.
It is a fundraiser that initiated with the middle school’s Hi-Y club. According to the club’s advisors, middle school teachers Rose Milnes and April Molloy, Hi-Y is a service organization at the middle school and is comprised of sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders. The idea, Molloy said, for a fundraiser to help with the purchase of a police dog came from a fundraiser done in February that was held in conjunction with a shopping event downtown, and it’s an idea the kids liked.
They decided on a coin fundraiser and did it for one week in March. To add some punch to the drive, the home rooms of each grade level competed against one another. Hi-Y members decorated collection cans to place in each homeroom, and the race was on.
Halfway through the week a tally was done on what had been collected and the leading homerooms were announced, which helped encourage the competition.
“Students got busy asking for coins and money from relatives and cleaning out cup holders in the car and lifting up couch cushions to search for coins,” Milnes said.
According to the advisors, one sixth grade student asked his parents if he could donate some of his birthday money, and with his parents’ permission, this student gave $60 to his homeroom’s collection. The act is something that further encouraged the other sixth-grade homerooms to collect as much as they could.
By the end of the weeklong fundraiser, the sixth grade had raised more than $600, seventh grade just over $200, and eighth grade nearly $300.
An additional donation infusion came when Mrs. Lee, a counselor with Integrated Services for Behavioral Health who works with Greenfield’s middle school students, shared with her employer what the kids were up to, and the company donated $250.
The total came to a little over $1,376, which the students presented to the police department last week. Students got to tour the police station and received special bracelets from the police department as a thank you for their efforts.
A trained K-9 police dog costs well over $10,000, with the cost varying depending on what the dog has been trained to do. The animals are an important part of a department’s service to the community.
Other fundraisers have occurred to help the Greenfield Police Department purchase a K-9 officer, like the shopping event in February which raised several hundred dollars. Another chance to help the effort is coming up through The Art Rookery, which, according to its Facebook page, invites all to take photos of their dogs and enter them into the first Greenfield Community Photography Exhibition. The exhibit will be on Saturday, May 13 from 5-8 p.m. at The Art Rookery during a downtown shopping event. Every dollar received for entries will go to the police department to help purchase a K-9.
Angela Shepherd is a correspondent for the village of Greenfield.
