¡Ometepe calendars!

Published 7:00 pm Saturday, December 10, 2005

Saddened by the destruction caused by recent hurricanes, socially conscious third-graders at Wilkes Elementary School decided to expand their annual fund-raising campaign.

Normally, sales from calendars created in Alice Mendoza’s class go to Ometepe, Bainbridge’s sister island. This year, the class is designating half the money they receive to hurricane relief efforts in this country, via the American Red Cross.

The rest of the money will go toward construction of outdoor school auditoriums and funding books for five elementary schools in Ometepe and paying tuition for a college student at the University of Nicaragua.

This is the 13th year of calendar sales through “Kids Can Make A Difference, which has raised more than $100,000. Each year’s class decides whether to carry on the tradition.

“I really leave it all up to them,” said Mendoza, who has taught at Wilkes for 16 years. “The only direction I give them is that the project must tie in with the third-grade Pacific Rim Social Studies curriculum.”

This year’s theme is “Sea Creatures of the Pacific Basin.”

Calendars cost $10 each and are available at ACE Hardware, Safeway, Town & Country, Bainbridge Cinemas, Blackbird Bakers and Eagle Harbor Books.