Sibley, Iowa — Third grade students at Ben Franklin Elementary School in Sibley have undertaken a very special project to help the family of Riley Meyer, who perished in a fire that destroyed her family’s George home earlier this month.
Jenna Helmers teaches third grade at Ben Franklin Elementary, and she says the project began in conjunction with Random Acts of Kindness Week.
Helmers says Ben Franklin’s Guidance Counselor had traveled to the Central Lyon Schools, where Riley Meyer had been a student, to assist students of that school in coping with the loss of their classmate.
Even though none of the Ben Franklin students, nor their teachers, had any connection with Riley or her family, Helmers says they wanted to help, even going so far as to start bringing in food items before she was able to send a note home to their parents.
She says the class had a large discussion about what it means to lose everything you own in a fire.
Helmers says it warms her heart to see the generosity of her students, many of whom don’t have much at home themselves, give so generously to help a family they’ve never met.
The students worked together in groups, organizing the donated food. They even went so far as to create labels for the box with pictures and descriptions of what each box contained. Below are a few of the pictures of the class’s efforts.
