Mrs. Kennedy's amazing Kindergarteners

How much can a five year old do?

With a creative teacher, a lot.

Leslie Kennedy's kindergarten class at St. John's in Healdsburg, Ca., heard about a school in Draglic, Croatia, where the children couldn't even play in the field because their soccer field was full of landmines. So, they decided to do something to help.

They decided on a program they called the Warm Hugs program. The children did chores at home for quarters, and brought the quarters into class. They collected enough to buy warm sweatshirts and teddy bears for each of the children in the Draglic school.

Leslie then went to Croatia, with Roots of Peace, a local organization helping in de-mining Croatia, and one of the parents from St. John's. 

With donated computers, they set up an Internet connection, and a live video hookup between the children. The students at St. John's got to see their teddy bears being delivered. The students in Croatia got to see their new friends, and hear them sing a Croatian folk song they had learned just for the occassion.

Just the beginning

While she was over there, Leslie made another discovery - the kitchen of the school had been bombed out, so the teachers weren't able to make proper lunches for the students.

She had an idea, that led to Phase II of the program.

Phase II: After the bears

When she was in Croatia, Leslie discovered that the kitchen of the school in Dragic had been bombed out, meaning the teachers could not fix proper lunches for their students.

She brought this news back to her students at St. John's, and they decided what to do about it. They held a garage sale. 

This amazing group of kindergarteners brought everything they could find for the sale - clothes they no longer wore, toys they no longer played with (with their parents' permission).

By the end of the sale, they had enough to rebuild the kitchen in Draglic.

Recently, Leslie got a package from Croatia, with many warm thanks, and pictures of the new kitchen!  

Phase III: Aiming higher

Leslie and her kids did not stop there. 

With the help of artist Linda Schroeter in Geyserville, the students did paintings about their programs, to raise money to help de-mine the fields behind the school, which had landmines left over from the time of the conflict. Their paintings went on display in local wineries, and were sold for funds to demine the soccer field through Roots of Peace. 

The funds raised were matched by the International Trust Fund, to speed the students toward their target.