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8th Graders Donate End-Of-Year Trip Money To Help Navajo Nation

June 8, 2020

8th graders at a school in New Mexico used all of the money raised for their end-of-year trip to help the struggling Navajo Nation.

Credit: Jess Falkenhagen via CNN

The 8th grade class at the Waldorf School in Santa Fe had spent the entire year raising $2,800 for their rafting trip. But their trip was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

So, the students chose to make a major impact on the lives of others by using the money to help the Navajo Nation.

In May, the Navajo Nation surpassed New York and New Jersey for the highest per-capita coronavirus infection rate in the US, CNN reports.

Parent Jess Falkenhagen spoke with Navajo leaders to find out what supplies were urgently needed.

The students used their $2,800 fund to purchase diapers, formula, toilet paper, wipes, medicines, soup, potatoes, pasta, beans, rice, pet food and a dozen reusable five gallon jugs filled with water.

Falkenhagen drove with her daughters, Daisy and Indie Russell, to Window Rock, Arizona, to make the delivery on behalf of the eighth grade class.

Their teacher, Daisy Barnard, told CNN, "I am very proud of my students, but I'm not surprised. This is a very generous and compassionate group of teens. They have been raised to think outside their own immediate lives and it shows in moments like this."