Ponce Middle students are learning while serving

When the eighth graders at Ponce de Leon Middle School heard about what happened in Haiti, our teachers, Ms. Bryan and Mrs. Nuñez-Hernandez, came together with a plan to develop an eighth-grade legacy.

After we researched the reasons why the island nation of Haiti would be so devastated after the earthquake, we realized that they have faced a series of natural disasters in the last five years, they have an unstable government, shady infrastructure and an overwhelmingly large population of children who had no caretakers prior to the earthquake.

All of these things were capitalized on January 12th when Haiti faced yet another natural disaster, the 7.0 earthquake. With the guidance of our teachers we decided we wanted to help, so we selected an orphanage in Haiti and have been collecting the supplies they needed from students in the school and in our community.

We started this process by going online and using the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and the Charity Navigator to look for orphanages in Haiti that were credible so that we could send them the supplies they needed. We found and selected orphanages using the list of criteria we developed for determining credibility and presented what we found to our classmates.

After everyone presented, we voted and picked the orphanage that seemed best suited for the project. The results of the vote determined that we would support “The Friends of the Orphans,” which oversees St. Hèléne Orphanage in Haiti.

This project that we took on combines The Sunshine State Standards and key FCAT skills dealing with information literacy and technology requirements infused with real-life issues. Furthermore, this project had a lasting impact on me and my classmates.

It taught us that if we all put our minds together we can actually help people while at the same time preparing for the high-stakes state test. It makes me feel so good to know that many of the students, including myself, were really interested in this project. I took this very seriously because we are actually helping other children.

Please join our legacy and bring your donations for children in Haiti to our school media center and/or Mrs. Nuñez-Hernandez’s room.

St. Hèléne is a permanent home for more than 350 children. Please feel free to bring any of the items listed below Monday thru Friday until Wednesday, June 2nd, and help Ponce, help kids in Haiti!
• Underwear (boys and girls– all sizes)
• Socks (all sizes)
• Sandals (all sizes)
• Soap
• Shampoo
• Tissues
• Hand sanitizer
• Batteries (all sizes)
• Tooth brush (with cover) and toothpaste
• Baby wipes

Our efforts have been recognized by the GablesHomePage.com, the Coral Gables e-newsletter, the Coral Gables Gazette, Just Ask Boo, the Coral Gables news channel, Mayor Slesnick and you too … we hope!

Brooke Hatten is an 8th grade student in Mrs. Nuñez-Hernandez and Ms. Bryan’s class at Ponce de Leon Middle School.