Students praised for doing right

Herald-Tribune

Students give thousands to help those in need

Using his allowance money, first-grader Kai Sutter bought a ticket for a $10,000 jackpot prize drawing at an event and told his mother that if he won, he would donate half of the money to benefit people in need.

Kai won the drawing and kept his promise, giving the money to a collection for Heifer International that his class was participating in at Fruitville Elementary.

He presented a check for $4,000, half of his winnings after taxes, to local Heifer volunteer representative Yvonne Eubanks on May 10 at Fruitville Elementary.

Kai and his classmates have been collecting money on their own, from allowances, lemonade stands and garage sales to help impoverished people around the world.

Eubanks and her husband, Mark, who are Heifer volunteers, arrived in a classroom filled with students from five gifted classes to accept $5,273 from the students.

Eubanks presented to the children stuffed animals representing the real animals they will provide. The money will be used to buy Three flocks of chickens, seven trios of bunnies, four goats, four bee hives, eight llamas, three cows, four pigs, two water buffaloes and four tree seedlings.

"I know that Heifer helps a lot of people and it changes lives," Kai said.

Mark Eubanks said the organization benefits people in 170 countries, including the United States. Its mission started with the principle that people will benefit more from a cow than just a cup of milk, he said.

Since 1944, Heifer International has provided livestock and plants for people to gain self-reliance through breeding and raising the animals. The organization trains the people to care for and birth the animals while using as much of the resources as possible. Recipients are required to give their animal's first offspring to someone else in need, Yvonne Eubanks, said, allowing them to give something away for the first time. For more information, visit www.heifer.org.