Students raising money for tsunami victims

Have West Valley School students got a deal for you.

Go out to the school today to buy a $5 packet of coupons good at Herberger's this Saturday and do both yourself and Southeast Asian tsunami victims a good turn.

Or you can buy a raffle ticket for a ton of hay and, if you win, feed your livestock. Again, tsunami-stricken countries will be ultimate winners.

But that's not all. Attend the sixth-grade basketball tournament at the school on March 7, 8 and 10, buy some concessions, and you can still pitch in on the relief effort.

Or, if you don't want anything in return, just make a donation.

All contributions will go to help orphans through the Kalispell-based Lifeline of Hope.

It's part of the seventh- and eighth-grade students' drive to do something to help relieve suffering caused in the Dec. 26 tsunami in the Indian Ocean.

The students are selling the Community Day coupon packets, an annual promotion that the department store's parent company sponsors to help local nonprofits raise money. But buy your coupon books today in order to use them during Saturday's Community Day.

And get your hay raffle tickets by Monday, since the raffle closes on the last day of February. Raffle tickets and donation boxes are located at Western Outdoor, Corral West, Cenex Harvest States, Whitefish Credit Union's Kalispell location and in the West Valley school office.

A drawing for the winner of the hay will be held the second week of March.

West Valley teacher Kim Davis said the students got fired up for the fund-raising efforts when representatives from Lifeline of Hope visited the school.

They presented information on the work the organization does on behalf of orphans in India, Russia and elsewhere. The organization works primarily with children, so it was easy for the West Valley students to identify with the cause.

Soon after, they set to work coming up with fund-raising ideas.

Eighth-graders with the school's Student Council agreed to donate proceeds from its Valentine's dance.

Seventh- and eighth-graders have been selling the Community Day coupon packets, and have raised around $100 so far.

Seventh-graders enlisted two families who donated a ton of hay each.

And they will operate the concession stand at the basketball tournament, then turn over proceeds for the cause.

Davis said they have set a goal of about $500 for the joint efforts. He expects the students will make it.