More than a dozen Peachtree City girls hosted a movie night fund-raiser this past weekend to raise money for Haiti earthquake relief.
Even though they range in age from 7 to 9, you wouldn’t guess it from the money they raised: over $1,700. They promoted the event with a large watercolor poster and good old-fashioned word of mouth.
They spread the word to friends, classmates, basketball teammates and their Sunday school friends. And when movie night rolled around at the Kilgore household in the Point on Lake Kedron subdivision, there were more than 100 children in attendance.
One of the party organizers was Sidney Bowen, who has family in Haiti whom she has never met. After nearly a week the Bowens learned Sunday that their kin — Sidney’s aunts, uncles and cousins — survived the quake.
Bowen said the fact that her friends banded together to raise money for Haitian relief “made me happy.”
Grace Kilgore, who is in the same Girl Scout troop with Sidney explained her motivation for the event beyond recognizing the plight of Sidney’s Haitian family.
“In my class I learned about the Haitian earthquake. After I heard it was a 7.1 earthquake I felt really really bad for them, so I decided to do something,” Grace said. “Mom came up with the idea for a movie night. Everyone worked really hard.”
When it came down to movie selection, the girls chose “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.”
“We thought it was a really good idea to take a popular movie and get lots of kids over to watch it,” said Kate Cullen.
Blaise DeGolian said she was happy the group helped raise money for Haiti “mostly for Sydney’s family and for other people who care.”
Kate Strickland said after she heard about movie night, she and her mother went online to learn more about the earthquake.
“We saw all these terrible things that happened in Haiti and I wanted to help,” Kate said.
“It would be terrible if you just lost your house one day, and everything in it,” said Colleen Daily.
To raise the money, a $5 donation was sought for attendance, and snacks and drinks were also sold. Moms spent the evening popping popcorn for the effort.
Stacie Kilgore said she was proud of the girls and she feels strongly if they can pull together such a fund-raiser, everyone can.
She noted that while the girls worked hard selling popcorn and the like during the event, it wasn’t a difficult task to pull off or promote, “and it was not a huge investment with their time or money.”
“We were hoping to get $100 honestly,” Kilgore said.
Some of those who attended had parents write their checks out to the American Red Cross, which is one of many global organizations helping with earthquake relief. But other money will be going to an orphanage in Haiti that helps house and educate children, as they are unfortunately expected to have an increase in children due to the earthquake that killed thousands upon thousands of people.
These youths hosted a movie night party to raise money for Haitian earthquake relief. Front: Colleen Daily, Alyssa Ginn, Kate Strickland, Kate Cullen, Madison Jubin and Sidney Bowen. Back row: Grace Kilgore, Eli Kilgore, Ally Cullen, Blaise DeGolian, Destin Hebert, Athena Nassar and Sarah Kilgore. Photo/John Munford.
