When kindergarteners at the Alexander Dawson School heard of the devastating tsunami, south Asia wasn't just some faraway land on a map.
They had studied Thailand in a school-wide world culture project the month before the tsunami; they knew about Thai culture, language, and had learned a Thai dance.
Edward, 5, tried to understand the destruction he saw on TV.
"The tsunami hitted Thailand and it hitted many places," Edward explained. "The places got destroyed."
Brooke, 6, was worried about the people in the country she had just studied.
"I felt sad for all the people that died," she said. "We wanted to try to help them and make them happy about Las Vegas."
Brooke, Edward and their class organized a change drive to benefit tsunami victims. They collected $11,310.12 that was presented to the American Red Cross Tsunami Relief Effort in a school assembly.
Kindergarten teacher Pamela Durkin said she was surprised by the children's concerns when they returned from Christmas vacation.
"I expected the kids to want to tell me about what they got for Christmas, about winter break. But instead they wanted to talk about Thailand, the tsunami, and how people were affected," she said.
The class conversation progressed from what had happened to how to help. Children keep change in their pockets, so a change drive seemed a perfect idea, Durkin said.
The kindergartners put change collection jars in all the classrooms and made signs to promote the drive. The older student council collected in the middle school grades.
"They're really proud of the effort," Durkin said of her students. "They were excited to go into every classroom every day and say, 'Excuse me, do you have any change?' "
The students collected more than $5,000 in change -- the rest in bills and checks -- that Binion's Horseshoe volunteered to cash. Changing and bagging the coins took 45 minutes.
Durkin is proud of the way the students took ownership of the drive. She said it was possible because the entire school supported it and had conducted a program the month before in which every class studied a different country.
The physical education teacher's wife, who is Thai, gave a lesson to Durkin's class. Durkin told of her visits to Thailand. The children ate Thai food and learned Thai dance. The class decorated their loft as a Buddhist temple and representations of elephants roamed the room.
"It's not just reading out of a book, here's a map, here's Thailand. It's really digging deep into the culture," Durkin said.
"Because of that, the kids have a real strong sense of what it's like to live in other countries, and they empathize with people," she said.
The children remember their Thai lessons and can still meditate in the style of Buddhist monks. When asked, they weren't quite sure how much $11,310 is, but said they hope it helps.
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