Every year, eighth-grade students at the Waldorf school in Sante Fe, New Mexico, sell burritos and pizzas to raise money for their annual class trip.
When COVID-19 struck the nation, however, their spring trip was canceled and the $2,800 they raised needed a new home. The students decided to use the money to donate supplies to the Navajo Nation who has disproportionately higher numbers of people suffering and dying from coronavirus than most of the US.
On Tuesday 5/26, Jessica Falkenhagen rented a van and drove supplies to Window Rock, AZ with her daughter. They brought food, toiletries, paper products, school, cleaning supplies, pet food, thermometers, handmade masks (which her daughter made), and water, that was purchased with the trip money.
The eighth-grade students helped do the shopping and load up the van before Faulkenhagen made the journey.
"I could see how lit up the kids were about that idea," teacher Daisy Barnard said after she put the idea to the class. "None of them complained about using the money for something other than a trip."
Despite missing the rafting adventure in Utah, student Daisy Blue Russell is glad things worked out the way they did. "It felt good to use our trip money to help others who needed it."