This year, Jackson Academy’s Lower School raised $10,859.72 and purchased 85 animals ranging from water buffalo to honeybees. This is the Lower School’s sixteenth year to raise money to benefit Heifer International.
Supporting Heifer International started in 2005 as a community service component to JA’s “Christmas Around the World” Day in first through sixth grades. When the Lower School was structured into first through fourth grades, the project was moved to the spring as a community service outreach at Easter. Lower School has missed only two years in the last 18 years – the year that JA transitioned to a Lower School and again in 2020 when the school moved to distance learning to complete the school year.
During 16 years of promoting Heifer, the Lower School has raised a total of $76,634.58. Students look forward to the project each year, and both collectively and individually, they find creative ways to raise money to buy animals rather than just asking their parents for money. Students pick up sticks, have lemonade stands, clean up the house, bake and sell cupcakes/cookies, make jewelry to sell, and work in other ways to bring money to donate for the animals.
Also throughout the days of the project, teachers show videos about Heifer, and each day the students learn information about a different animal. They also locate on a map the countries that Heifer serves. Each grade has a display outside the classrooms to chart progress toward their goal. The Lower School is so proud of this long-standing tradition of helping families in need around the world.
