August Boeger Jr. High Leadership Class

Well, we have continued our monthly pay it forward projects. In October we raised $610.00 for the Gorilla Foundation. They have promised us that they will keep it going and Koko will pay it forward too!! In November we did a school wide food drive. We filled four barrels of canned food for the Second Harvest Food Bank. The food collected went to the homeless for the holidays. In December we picked four families in need within our district. We collected items and monetary donations based on their wish lists. Collections were donated from special teachers and staff within our district. Our Leadership class sold candy canes for .25 cents and all proceeds went to buying the families what they needed. We even had two teachers step up and match the money made by the students. The students from our families got new school sweatshirts and special Christmas gifts from "Santa." We also were able to get gift certificates for each family from Target and Albertsons. We were able to give a Christmas tree and decorations to one of the families that didn't have a tree. Donations included clothes, furniture, toiletries, books, CD's, videos, toys, school supplies, an even a brand new color TV!!! The families were very appreciative of our work and it was worth all the time and effort when we delivered the items and saw their faces!!! Still paying it forward in San Jose!! :)

Mrs. Robbins and the August Boeger Jr. High Leadership Class

I teach a Leadership class at August Boeger Jr. High in San Jose, California. Our class decided that we are going to try to PAY IT FORWARD to an organization each month. We started our first project this month (Oct. 03). We decided that we wanted to not only help organizations for people, but for animals too.

In the month of Oct. we set our goals on The Susan B. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and The Gorilla Foundation. On October 10, 2003 we decided to join in National Jean Day to help raise money for breast cancer. Students paid $ .75 and staff paid $1.00 for a jeans pass. We were able to raise $250.75!! We are also in the middle of our penny drive for Koko and the other gorillas at The Gorilla Foundation. We have raised about $400.00 so far and will be continuing with this effort until the end of the month. We emailed the Gorilla Foundation to let them know what our project is about and the students asked if Koko could help us to pay it forward. The class even gave her some ideas on how she could do that. Wouldn't it be great if an animal could pay it forward?

Future projects that we are planning include filling barrels of canned food for the Second Harvest Food Bank, Adopting a Grandparent program at a local nursing home, cleaning out cages at the Humane Society, helping families in need for Christmas, making cards for children in the hospital, arranging a Dr. Suess birthday party (donating books, reading to students and setting up a green eggs and ham lunch) at one of our elementary schools and more. With each of our donations we are passing on a pay it forward coupon.

The students (all 33 of them) are also planning to pay it forward to three people each, like Trevor did and write an essay on each one. Once they have completed the essay they will get a pay it forward button that we are in the process of ordering. We are hoping we can reach most of the school and some of the community. Our goal is to be able to touch as many people and animals that we can during this school year. Hopefully our efforts will help them in some small way. Sincerely,

Mrs. Robbins and the August Boeger Jr. High Leadership Class