Bracelet sale spreads service

The Sappington Elementary K-Kids club knows no borders when it comes to helping others. The service reach of this group of second- through fifth-grade students stretched this school year all the way from its St. Louis, Missouri, community to the small country of Malawi in southeast Africa.

Sappington K-Kids sell bracelets to raise money for Project Peanut Butter.

Some young K-Kids marketers put up a billboard advertising their fundraising project.

An active group, the K-Kids club strives to perform at least one service project a month. The club didn’t putt around, for example, after its organizational meeting this past October. Rather, members pitched right in to work on a variety of projects for a Clubbing for Character golf tournament, decorating thank-you cards for community sponsors and creating thank-you posters to display at gift tables during the tournament.

The club maintained its busy pace during the year, joining the student council in a Thanksgiving food drive and a collection for Nurses for Newborns in December; decorating hallways as part of the school Veteran’s Day commemoration; selling lollipops to raise money for the National Leukemia and Lymphoma Society; providing dessert, busing tables, and greeting guests at the school’s spaghetti dinner; raising almost $300 for UNICEF, and working on other projects.

In January, the club spread its altruism internationally, undertaking a fundraising campaign for Project Peanut Butter. Founded by Mark Manary, professor of pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, the project helps thousands of malnourished children in southeast Africa by providing them nutritional peanut butter.

Sappington K-Kids raised more than $500—enough to help 500 children—by selling Project Peanut Butter bracelets.