Do you like donating to various charities that help all kinds of animals and people? That is exactly what Chickering School is doing this year for the first time. The fifth grade students at Chickering vote to choose the charities that the school will donate to, and the rest of the school can donate (optional) in exchange to be part of a fun activity! Our first day of donating was titled: “Crazy Hat Day!”. 
On January 21st, the second fun activity was “Wacky Wednesday”, a day where you could donate one dollar to wear wacky clothes! Each dollar collected goes to the charity selected for the month. This fantastic new idea is called Make a Difference Day!
This is Chickering’s first year participating in Make a Difference Day. Make a Difference Day is a day where the entire school gets together to help a charity around the world. We are doing Make a Difference to help make the world a better place, one charity at a time.
How much of a difference do you think a dollar can really make? Not much you assume… Think again! One of the fifth grade classes was reading a TFK (Time for Kids) in the TFK, it talked about a charity called Aarambah, and they wanted to donate to it.
Aarambah is an organization that uses its donations to make help desks. What is a help desk you ask? A Help Desk is a desk that takes 20 cents to make. 
These desks are made out of recycled cardboard and can be converted into a suitcase and backpack. When the kids use these desks it will improve their posture. How? Most kids in India don’t have desks and chairs like we do in here at Chickering. So, in school, they sit on the ground and hunch over their work. With the help desks, it will cause them to sit up and this will improve their posture. Our first Make a Difference Day we donated to the amazing charity…(drum roll)… Aarambah! Clearly, this is a very amazing charity that people all over the world can donate to.
The fifth graders run the Make a Difference program, because they are the student role models and the leaders of Chickering. Every classroom in the fifth grade is assigned a grade by their teacher and there are groups in that classroom that are assigned a certain class in that grade. The students talk to their assigned grade and tell them about the charity and the privilege that they will receive if they donate. It’s great that the other grades are looking forward to donating and making a difference.
Without a doubt, Make a Difference Day is a great way to get the community together and help the world! With three or four more of these days, Chickering is sure to make a big impact! Our next difference day has already been scheduled! It is on March 11th and we get to wear all neon! Chickering is learning, laughing, and making a difference, one charity at a time.
Reported by Liza, Jane, Emily, Lauren