A Special Thanksgiving for 100

A few months back a colleague and I started talking about a Thanksgiving Dinner fundraiser. We capped the dinner at 70, but somehow it ballooned to 100.  As time went on we added No Uniform Day (kids can wear their regular clothes for a nominal fee), movie night, and  making and selling home made brownies, cookies.  It seemed like a colossal endeavor, so I had an open class (a class open for teachesr from around the region to observe my marginal teaching abilities) on the same day just to be sure I was totally screwed.

Then something strange and unexpected happen...things went well.

The kids did a great job making posters and billboards with no complaints.

We made over 300 brownies and 300 cookies and the kids did a great job with no complaints. The kids did a great job selling them, and they were gone in a couple of hours.

We made stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, apple crisp, the cafeteria cooked some turkeys, and I bought some pumpkin pies.  Then, we decorated our dining room with greenery, hundreds of candles and pictures of all the good deeds my kids are doing in the volunteer club.

Afterward, a dozen kids cleaned for a couple of hours.  No complaints.

My kids raised about $1000 to pay for a years worth of  anti-convulsion medicine for a little girl from Burma (the second year they did this) and most of the money for another eye operation for another little girl from Burma (they have paid for 3 operations for a little boy and this is the second for this little girl).

The most special part was after cleaning the kids said, "Teacher, you have to eat now".  So I sat down and began eating.  They were finished and started off to watch the movie they had paid too see, but missed half of so they could clean.  A minute later they came back, and one kid said, "We did not want you to be by yourself".  So the 10 kids sat down with me to give me company while I finished my meal.

As a teacher you spend so much time and effort on the kids who have problems you sometimes forget about the inherent goodness of the masses.  I am thankful my kids reminded me of this on this special Thanksgiving day.