Paying it Forward in South Taranaki, New Zealand

Hi my name is Lynn Abraham and I teach in a small school in South Taranaki
New Zealand.

Last year I was honored to teach a group of misunderstood students.
I based our learning aroud listening with empathy and understanding as it
is very clear out there in the world that our young people care most for
themselves rather then others.

I introduced the Pay it Forward concept to this group of students and
explained that sometimes doing for others is far more meaningful then
having things done for you.  After a discussion we all decided that we
would like to raise funds  for three chosen charities because of the work
these charities do everyday with out recognition. We choose a local rest
home, National children's hospital and world vision.
We started our Pay it Forward campaign with a cake stall and a school wide
mufti day.  We also asked the community for donations of wool and we all
learnt how to knit and we knitted a lap blanket for the residents of our
local rest home, we still have more donated wool so this project is set
for another year.  We had a sausage sizzle and ran a few raffles in the
end we had raised $200.00 so this money was split up and donated to our
three charities along with a special note asking these charities to
continue with the  work they do because they really do make a difference
to peoples lives.  This year I hope to have another group of students and
we will be looking at Pay it Forward in other ways.  If 1 person could
help 3 more people and so on The world we live in would be a much nicer
and safer place.  That our dream.

Remember to Pay it Forward

Lynn Abraham
Patea Area School
Taranaki
New Zealand