For a lot of people in Northern Michigan, one of their favorite memories of growing up was a class trip to Mackinac Island and the fifth graders at Concord Academy were no different. They were planning for this same trip through a school fundraiser.
“This is my first-year teaching, and I knew that I wanted to do something really memorable for the students with hands on learning and part of the fifth-grade social studies curriculum is early American history and the perfect place to do hands on learning in Michigan is Mackinac Island. So, since we’re a performing arts school, our high school was having a showing of Snow White, and we wanted to bring carnations for families and friends to buy for the performers. And then we take the profits and apply that to our fundraiser,” said 5th grade teacher, Kiera Raymond.
But unfortunately, Mother Nature had different plans.
“Of course, Northern Michigan had like the worst blizzard ever and it canceled the shows. And we had the carnations already. We pre bought them. So, we were a little discouraged because we knew that we would be losing money. We made this investment, and we didn’t have a way to return on it,” said Raymond.
Miss Raymond got to a point where she wasn’t as concerned about the profit, but more so she hoped to break even so that they weren’t farther from their goal than when they started.
“It’s really hard to explain to fifth graders that you’re starting with less money for your fundraiser than you started with, you know, -$100 is not good for the fundraiser. So, I took to Facebook, and I asked if people wanted to buy them at face value,” Raymond said.
One post later and they broke even after one individual bought all the carnations and donated them to a local nursing home. But the community support didn’t stop there. People continued to donate towards the class trip. What began as a goal of raising $150, ended in a total of $400.
“It was actually really crazy. I wasn’t expecting like reaching out to just donate. Like I said, the students wanted to be a part of the fundraiser. But people were asking for my Venmo, and my Cash App and I was like, well, hey, let’s take it. And so, I put that out there and people were donating like left and right,” she said.
Perhaps people in the community were passionate about these fifth graders going on this trip because of the lasting memory, their adventure to the island made on them.
“The comment sections like in that Facebook post, people were like 80 years old, and they still remembered that their class trip to Mackinac Island and how special that was for them. So, I hope when my fifth graders are 80 years old that they can look back at it with fun memories as well,” said Miss Raymond.
And because of you, these fifth graders can’t wait for their first time on Mackinac Island.
“Just seeing the community show out and care about kids and their education is really encouraging,” Raymond said.
“I was really excited, and that we could learn and have the experience of going, really happy that we actually get to do it. And we think there will be a lot to experience on the island,” said Concord Academy 5th grader, Blake Carpenter.
