Photo Traci Newell/Town Crier

Egan Junior High Student Council President Emily Andris, from left, Treasurer Ryan Fisse and Secretary Katia Gibson coordinated the One Dollar For Life drive to benefit a school in Nicaragua.

Egan Junior High School students recently opened their wallets to benefit a school in Nicaragua by donating to the One Dollar For Life (ODFL) campaign.

Egan’s Student Council set a goal of each student contributing $1 to support the Tepeyac School in the Central American country.

To accommodate growing enrollment, the Tepeyac School must split its students into two sessions. The older students attend classes in the morning and the younger students arrive in the afternoon. The journey to school can be dangerous. Some of the children must cross rivers that swell and pose risks in the afternoon.

The ODFL project aims to build an additional classroom on the campus to enable all students to travel to and attend class at the same time.

After Egan Principal Brenda Dyckman presented the potential project to her student council leadership, she said students were very much in favor of offering their help.

“We thought if we could ask for $1 – that is easy enough for each student,” said Ryan Fisse, eighth-grade treasurer.

The student council collaborated with homeroom teachers to spread the message of collecting money. They also showed a video to explain ODFL’s mission.

“We asked, ‘Can you remember anything you’ve done with $1?’” said Katia Gibson, eighth-grade secretary. “You’ll remember this dollar for the rest of your life.”

The student council met its fundraising target of $521. The contributions will be pooled with Los Altos High School’s fundraising efforts ($4,400). Palo Alto middle and high school students are also donating to the cause.

“We thought we would get the community … to fund one project,” said Cathy Dwulet, ODFL director of delivery services. “We are finding that the middle-school kids are getting more sophisticated, and when they see the photos of the project, they think, ‘Wow, this is what we did for a dollar.’”

For more information, visit www.odfl.org.

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