Students parade screaming through the halls. Trumpets blare, peers scramble frantically to get out of the procession’s way, and paper signs flutter festively from the tips of booming musical instruments. On Wednesday, November 20, the United Nations and Children’s’ Fund (UNICEF) Club raised awareness for the ongoing ‘Kids Helping Kids’ Fundraiser.

The fundraiser, which was introduced and spearheaded by UNICEF President Junior Marina Finley, took place over a range of approximately 4 weeks and raised a grand total of $4,716. Originating as Linear Middle School’s “Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF” fundraiser, Bellaire’s second annual drive evolved with Finley to become the highly successful one that can be found today.

“I originally came up with the idea when I was in seventh grade and my mom said that I was too old to go trick-or-treating for UNICEF,” Finley said. “Because I couldn’t take the UNICEF box out to houses, I brought it to my homeroom teacher and asked her if we could put donations in the box. It was so successful in my homeroom and we raised so much money that we expanded it to the whole school. I did it again in eighth grade and we made it a school-wide thing, and then I brought it to Bellaire and it has been really successful and a lot of fun.”

The drive itself is relatively simple, involving boxes, the English Department, and a number of smaller fundraisers along the, such as Tribal Tuesdays, where Henna Tattoos were offered in the Courtyard. Linda Pham explains the process.

“Basically every English teacher in the entire school, from regular to AP to ESL, would have a little ‘Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF’ box,” Pham said. “Kids would donate pennies to bills; and then the class with the most would receive a pizza party, and the second class would receive a cookie party.”

The total was tallied by teacher and English teacher Jeffrey Waller’s class raised the most money, with a winning total of $1,252.  English teacher Elizabeth Chapman’s classes came in second, acquiring $737. This fundraiser was possible by the help of many different people.

“It basically just took a lot of really enthusiastic members and happy teachers,” Pham said. “Everyone had to make their teacher really want to give incentives, like extra credit and food, to give the students that extra push to donate. And we worked with other clubs like Key Club, which was a really big help to us.”

Finley agrees, although she feels that there is one more person who has gone above and beyond in helping this drive flourish.

“Our amazing Principal Mr. McDonough was definitely a great advocate of the fundraiser,” Finley said. “He supported it from day one, and he’s always been very generous with his time and his talent to make the campaign a real success.”

This was the second of many UNICEF Drives, and other than some minor changes in organization and membership numbers, the club expects its process to stay the same. Nevertheless, it still strongly stressed student participation.

“We do the UNICEF Drive because it’s a really great opportunity for kids to make a difference,” Finley said. “These kids have talent and drive and enthusiasm and passion, and participating in or donating to the UNICEF fundraiser is a really great way for kids to make a meaningful difference and help the lives of kids all over the world. It’s a great thing to be able to give kids that opportunity and to see them really make it their own; have competitions within their classes and donate and bring bags and bags of change and to comprehend that when they donate this dollar, it changes from something that can buy them one coke to something that can buy vaccinations that saves lives, and that’s a really amazing thing.”