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The Roseburg High School women’s history class still has a few fundraisers going on.
If you want to donate money toward the students’ effort to buy a cow and other livestock for impoverished families in other countries, visit Heifer International’s Web site, www.heifer.org.
To reach the class’s donation page, click on Team Heifer under the “Give” tab, then click on Find a Team and enter “Gwen Bartlett” in the corresponding fields.
Checks can also be made out to Roseburg High School, with a memo line of “Heifer Fundraiser,” and sent to 400 W. Harvard Ave., Roseburg, OR 97470.
If you want to donate money toward the students’ effort to buy a cow and other livestock for impoverished families in other countries, visit Heifer International’s Web site, www.heifer.org.
To reach the class’s donation page, click on Team Heifer under the “Give” tab, then click on Find a Team and enter “Gwen Bartlett” in the corresponding fields.
Checks can also be made out to Roseburg High School, with a memo line of “Heifer Fundraiser,” and sent to 400 W. Harvard Ave., Roseburg, OR 97470.
Freaking out before a final and “having a cow” are sorta typical at test time. Buying a cow for the final is definitely not.
But Thursday morning, the Roseburg High School women’s history class had reached its goal of earning enough money to purchase just such an animal.
Teacher Gwen Bartlett had the idea to buy a cow about a year ago after learning about Heifer International and doing her research.
The philanthropic organization works to end hunger and poverty in underdeveloped countries by providing livestock to impoverished families and teaching them how to care for the animals and their environments.
The program also encourages recipient families to “pass it on” by giving offspring of their livestock away to help other families.
Bartlett said Heifer International’s goals connected with the class, which focused on global women’s history, because statistics show that 70 percent of the world’s poor are women. Part of the global effort is aimed at gender equality.
She said the idea of giving her students a leadership opportunity and the chance to make a difference in the world was too much to pass up. So two weeks before the end of the semester, Bartlett asked her students what they thought about buying a cow for their final.
At first, senior Britney Dense thought her teacher was joking.
“I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ ” Dense remembered.
But the class pulled together. Within two weeks, through a schoolwide coin collection effort, a bottle and can drive, a pie-in-the-face contest and an online fundraising site, the class raised $1,085, more than doubling the $500 it takes to buy a cow.
Because their fundraiser was so successful, the students decided to buy a “milk menagerie”, which will include a cow, a water buffalo and two goats. Extra money earned over the $1,000 it takes to buy a menagerie will purchase other animals.
Senior Kellie DeMers and junior Catherine Kateley were part of the can drive committee.
Kateley said getting up the nerve to talk to strangers in their door-to-door effort was her biggest struggle, while DeMers said it was working with other students she didn’t know.
“I’ve never done anything like this before, so I really threw myself into it,” DeMers said about the fundraising.
Seniors Katelin Potter and Katrina Basso were part of the committee that got about 100 plastic sour cream buckets from Umpqua Dairy and placed them in classrooms throughout the Roseburg campus to collect spare change.
Potter said she didn’t think anyone would take notice of their buckets, since similar coin drives happen yearly. But the coin committee ended up being the most lucrative of all the different fundraising efforts, raising $630.
Buckets netted not only small change, but also bills and even a check and some Canadian coins, which threw the coin counters for a loop, Basso said.
“Even in these times of economic problems, people are still willing to help others. And we’re able to help a few families around the world,” Basso said
A third fundraiser had students emptying pockets to throw pies at teachers, and the girls who were in charge of the event said it was “crazy.”
“They all just surrounded us,” Dense said.
Hannah, Bartlett’s 7-year-old daughter, even pitched in and raised $54 for the class.
Junior Ricky Duffy said getting used to the female-focused and mostly female student class took a while.
“I was intimidated and shy at the beginning of the year,” he said, adding that as the year progressed, all in the class really opened up to him. “This is probably my first fundraiser and it’s really great to help someone less fortunate. I though we made a great impact around the school and eventually around the world.”
To inspire her class, Bartlett baited her students by promising to wear a cow suit to school if the class reached its $500 goal.
In the words of senior Larisa Czernowski, the fundraising effort, along with seeing Bartlett donning black and white spots, was simply “udder satisfaction.”
• You can reach reporter DD Bixby at 957-4211 or by e-mail at dbixby@nrtoday.com.
But Thursday morning, the Roseburg High School women’s history class had reached its goal of earning enough money to purchase just such an animal.
Teacher Gwen Bartlett had the idea to buy a cow about a year ago after learning about Heifer International and doing her research.
The philanthropic organization works to end hunger and poverty in underdeveloped countries by providing livestock to impoverished families and teaching them how to care for the animals and their environments.
The program also encourages recipient families to “pass it on” by giving offspring of their livestock away to help other families.
Bartlett said Heifer International’s goals connected with the class, which focused on global women’s history, because statistics show that 70 percent of the world’s poor are women. Part of the global effort is aimed at gender equality.
She said the idea of giving her students a leadership opportunity and the chance to make a difference in the world was too much to pass up. So two weeks before the end of the semester, Bartlett asked her students what they thought about buying a cow for their final.
At first, senior Britney Dense thought her teacher was joking.
“I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ ” Dense remembered.
But the class pulled together. Within two weeks, through a schoolwide coin collection effort, a bottle and can drive, a pie-in-the-face contest and an online fundraising site, the class raised $1,085, more than doubling the $500 it takes to buy a cow.
Because their fundraiser was so successful, the students decided to buy a “milk menagerie”, which will include a cow, a water buffalo and two goats. Extra money earned over the $1,000 it takes to buy a menagerie will purchase other animals.
Senior Kellie DeMers and junior Catherine Kateley were part of the can drive committee.
Kateley said getting up the nerve to talk to strangers in their door-to-door effort was her biggest struggle, while DeMers said it was working with other students she didn’t know.
“I’ve never done anything like this before, so I really threw myself into it,” DeMers said about the fundraising.
Seniors Katelin Potter and Katrina Basso were part of the committee that got about 100 plastic sour cream buckets from Umpqua Dairy and placed them in classrooms throughout the Roseburg campus to collect spare change.
Potter said she didn’t think anyone would take notice of their buckets, since similar coin drives happen yearly. But the coin committee ended up being the most lucrative of all the different fundraising efforts, raising $630.
Buckets netted not only small change, but also bills and even a check and some Canadian coins, which threw the coin counters for a loop, Basso said.
“Even in these times of economic problems, people are still willing to help others. And we’re able to help a few families around the world,” Basso said
A third fundraiser had students emptying pockets to throw pies at teachers, and the girls who were in charge of the event said it was “crazy.”
“They all just surrounded us,” Dense said.
Hannah, Bartlett’s 7-year-old daughter, even pitched in and raised $54 for the class.
Junior Ricky Duffy said getting used to the female-focused and mostly female student class took a while.
“I was intimidated and shy at the beginning of the year,” he said, adding that as the year progressed, all in the class really opened up to him. “This is probably my first fundraiser and it’s really great to help someone less fortunate. I though we made a great impact around the school and eventually around the world.”
To inspire her class, Bartlett baited her students by promising to wear a cow suit to school if the class reached its $500 goal.
In the words of senior Larisa Czernowski, the fundraising effort, along with seeing Bartlett donning black and white spots, was simply “udder satisfaction.”
• You can reach reporter DD Bixby at 957-4211 or by e-mail at dbixby@nrtoday.com.
