Woodland Students 'Earn 'N Burn' to Help Foundation

When Woodland School fifth-grade teacher Adam Yenish shared the amazing story of hope about his 4-year-old son Anthony John—"AJ"—who was born with arthrogryposis, and the help the family received at the Shriner's Hospital of Philadelphia, with students at the school, he was surprised how quickly the kids lined up to help.

And when the school launched a project called "Thankful Thursdays," where the students took time each week to help a charity or project, the focus quickly became the Raise Your Glass Foundation, a non-profit Yenish and his wife, Danielle, began to support and recognize the hospital that's done so much to help AJ.

"I went to every classroom, kindergarten and on up, and I started with the message that even though we all look different, we're all the same," Yenish said. The idea was that kids could focus on helping other kids, even if a disease or injury or birth defect makes them appear or move differently.

The students got it, launching a number of fundraising projects to help the Foundation, from pen and pencil sales to lemonade stands. 

The cap on the projects came June 13, when the PTO's project to close out the school year had students shimmy, jump, bump and shake to music in a fundraiser called "Earn 'N Burn"—which netted more than $10,000 for the Foundation.

"When you have a kid helping a kid—it doesn't get better than that," Yenish said. "It's all about awareness and what they can do."

Yenish's lesson to the students is that even though an individual project might not raise a large sum, collectively the kids can do an amazing job of it. 

As part of the Earn 'N Burn project, students purchased raffle tickets for a new iPad Mini. Principal for the day Emily Sahler had the honor of drawing the winning ticket, held by Brianna Jimenez.