The fifth-graders at St. Martin’s Episcopal School are proof that you don’t have to be grown up to make a huge impact.
Since 2011, students at the Atlanta school have donated $4,473.75 to UGA Marine Education Center and Aquarium. A check for the school’s most recent donation of $1,000 was presented this spring during the annual fifth-grade trip to UGA Aquarium on Skidaway Island.
“You have given so much to us and our fifth-graders, that we really wanted to give back,” said Mary McPherson, elementary school principal at St. Martin’s.
The students raised the money at a bake sale, part of St. Martin’s annual Cookie Company project, an interdisciplinary unit in which fifth-graders work in small teams to form cookie companies. They learned about advertising, website development, budgets, and they sharpened their math skills through calculating for large-batch baking. All of this took place over 10 days, culminating with a school-wide bake sale.
“It lets our students see where their money is going,” McPherson said, “which is an important part of our service learning development.”
Over the years, the funds have been used to purchase a variety of items, including a 15-person life raft, life jackets; life rings; a marine-grade hot water heater and refrigerator for the R/V Sea Dawg; a VHF marine radio; a GPS Chart Plotter; and several anchors.
“The students are very generous and proud to be able to help UGA’s educational efforts,” said John “Crawfish” Crawford, a marine education specialist and boat captain at UGA Aquarium. “They are appreciative, very interested, polite and a real pleasure to teach.”