'Change for Chile' effort pays off

Heather Gerg had only been back in the Flathead Valley for about five days when disaster struck Chile.

The teacher at Children’s House Montessori in Whitefish had returned Feb. 23 from a four-week stint studying Spanish at a Latin immersion school in Santiago, Chile.

The magnitude 8.8 earthquake that rattled the country and killed hundreds of people struck Feb. 27.

When Gerg returned to her classroom the following Monday, her students were overjoyed to see her.

“They ran in and knocked me over with hugs, [saying], ‘We’re so glad you’re here!’” she said.

Knowing someone who had been in a place rocked by disaster made a global event personal in a way most young children don’t experience.

The 3-, 4-, 5- and 6-year-olds in Gerg’s class wanted to help the people there who’d lost their homes, so Gerg found a way the children could be involved.

A friend in Chile told her about a program that, translated from Spanish, is called “A Roof Over Chile.” For $800, a Chilean family can have a shelter built to protect them from the elements and give them a temporary home, Gerg said.

It was a good project for the Montessori kids, she added.

“It seemed like a perfect opportunity to connect a few continents,” she said. “That’s what Montessori is all about. You start in the classroom [and move] to your town, to your state, to your continent and help [kids] be part of a world and a universe.”

Gerg and her class hoped to collect enough change to build a shelter in Chile. The students were excited to have a chance to help people their teacher might have seen or walked by in Santiago.

“They just jumped on that like wildfire,” Gerg said.

They created a display for their project, dubbed “Change for Chile.” Pictures of the Chilean flag were hung, and a house with a slot in the chimney for coins was set out.

Change makes a satisfying sound when it falls into the house, which makes the children happy, Gerg said.

She also brought in photos of places devastated by the earthquake.

“That’s what’s made a difference” in the whole school’s involvement in Change for Chile, Gerg said. “They saw there were kids who had lost their school and lost their home.”

The children also were struck by photos of places Gerg had seen in Santiago that were damaged in the quake.

“That’s where you walked? You walked past that same pharmacy every day?” Gerg said, mimicking her students’ slightly awed questions.

Her class created a presentation and put it on to the other classrooms at Children’s House Montessori. Their enthusiasm for helping people in Chile was contagious, and soon the entire school — between 80 and 90 students — was bringing in their spare change.

Grown-ups at the school caught the spirit and created a reward system to help students earn coins. By successfully stringing beads or printing numbers or helping a friend, a child could earn a few pennies to put in the house.

In about two months, their hard work raked in close to $100. Then their enthusiasm spread beyond the walls of the school.

One family donated about $200 to Change for Chile. Another donated somewhere between $800 and $1,000.

All told, Children’s House Montessori has collected more than $1,200 for Chile — enough to build a house and a half.

“It’s so cool that they’re so motivated about this,” Gerg said.

The program soon will come to an end, she said, but there is still time to make a donation. For additional information, call the school at 863-4685.

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com.