LA CENTER MIDDLE School students pose for their ‘Fashion Disaster’ dance, which helped raise money for the Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in Portland. The La Center students exceeded their fundraising goal by $2,000 this year and contributed $7,000 to the Portland children’s hospital.
When it comes to fundraisers, the kids at La Center Middle School (LCMS) know what they’re doing. Over the past 10 years, sixth, seventh and eighth grade classes from the La Center school have raised nearly $50,000 for the Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in Portland, contributed to annual, countywide food drives and hosted a variety of fundraisers for the less fortunate in their own community.
This year, the middle schoolers raised $7,000 for Doernbecher – their greatest contribution to date.
“Our biggest undertaking has been organizing the ‘Fashion Disaster’ dance, in which all proceeds went to Doernbecher’s,” said LCMS eighth-grader Loren Brown. “A super team of (student council) students put together a fantastic dance, which was crucial to being able to raise over $7,000.”
The middle school students raised money for the Portland children’s hospital throughout the year. They sold cookies, $1 paper “Doernbecher Dollies” and had a Copper-Silver War, in which each homeroom collected pennies (the copper) in their own jug to accumulate points. Students and teachers from other homerooms would then put paper money and silver coins like quarters, dimes and nickels in opposing homeroom jugs to give their opponents “negative points.”
“That activity played a huge role in reaching our goal of $5,000 and making it to $7,000,” Brown said.
Most years, the middle school students do the fundraising themselves. This year, however, the older students got their younger peers from the La Center Elementary School’s fourth and fifth grades involved and exceeded their fundraising goal by more than $2,000. The elementary students sold “Doernbecher Dollies,” paper dolls that represented a $1 donation to the children’s hospital and helped push the middle school past its fundraising goal.
“All of the elementary students who took part were ecstatic about their opportunity to donate and purchased tons of dollies, which were crucial in helping the middle school exceed our goal,” Brown said. “Each and every year, the middle schoolers are more excited to help with this great cause. Next year, we hope to extend this fundraiser to the high school and other elementary students.”
