In a speech

Oct. 11, President George W. Bush asked all children in the United States

to earn $1 each and send it to the White House for the children of Afghanistan.

Once again, Fayette's students honored the request.

Many schools

within the Fayette County School System organized fund-raising activities

to help their students make donations to the fund. Throughout the system,

students raised approximately $3,000, which has been sent to the White

House for the Afghanistan Children's Fund.

Robert J. Burch

Elementary was one of the first schools in the county to create a fund-raiser

campaign immediately following the president's request. The school created

a "wall of caring" and placed one heart on the wall for every

earned dollar that was donated. Approximately 286 hearts adorn the wall

with a motto at the top that says: "We Care about Our Country, Our

School and Our World."

"We started

off by placing the teacher's name on each heart as the donations came

in. It was amazing to watch as the wall grew from a few individual classroom

hearts into the hundreds of hearts that represent our entire school,"

said school counselor Jackie Uttley.

In order to

help the students understand why President Bush had asked children to

make the donations, Uttley did a morning television broadcast every Monday

to talk about the purpose of the Afghanistan Children's Fund. Many students

had questioned why the president wanted them to send money to a country

that was being attacked by the United States.

"We explained

to them that we are not at war with the people of Afghanistan but rather

with the terrorists who are making that country's people miserable,"

said Uttley. As a side benefit, the projects enabled the children to learn

more about the lives of the Afghanistan children.

Students at

Braelinn Elementary were asked to submit a form that described what they

had done to earn the dollar they donated. Each student was given a form

on red, white or blue paper. As students made their donations, the forms

were posted on a wall to form an American flag.

Almost 700

donation forms made up the flag. Around the edges of the flag were pictures

of Afghanistan children that had been cut from various newspapers. School

counselor Billie Anderson says that students learned that many of the

country's children were either orphans or had lost at least one parent.

"Our students

learned that the lives of the children over there are very different from

what theirs are here. This project helped them better understand the challenges

faced by the Afghanistan people," said Anderson.

Braelinn sent

the forms describing what the students did to earn their dollars to the

White House along with each student's donation.

Flat Rock Middle

School's Builder's Club, a branch of the Kiwanis Club of Fayetteville,

initiated a fund-raiser where students who donated $1 received red, white

or blue hearts with their names on them. The hearts were hung on what

the students called "the heart wall." In just three days, 200

hearts filled the wall near the cafeteria.

In order to

help students at the school understand why the donations were needed,

the Builders Club put together a PowerPoint presentation that was shown

during the school's closed circuit morning broadcast. The presentation

told students that the Afghanistan children were not responsible for the

terrorist attacks on the United States and that they were also victims

of terrorist activity in their country.

"At first

no one wanted to help the children because everyone thought they were

part of what happened to us. We told them that it was not the children's

fault; it was the terrorists' and that we couldn't blame the kids for

what happened," said sixth grader Ashley Ramlochun.

"Last

week before getting involved in this project, I never cared about other

countries. Being a part of this club and helping with the fund-raiser

has opened my eyes to the fact that there are other people in the world

who are not as fortunate and are in need of help," said sixth grader

Dylan Scarborough.