By Cynthia Koons
Students from JHS 194, a seventh- through ninth-grade school in Whitestone, raised $2,000 and the children of St. Andrew Avellino School, a pre-K through eighth-grade school in Flushing, collected $4,000 for the relief effort underway to help rebuild the South Asian nations destroyed by the devastating tsunami on Dec. 26.With a current death toll of 150,000 and rising, the natural disaster has inspired charity in many forms. In northeast Queens, collecting loose change and a casual Friday resulted in $6,000 worth of contributions.At JHS 194, 154-60 17th Ave., students put their pennies together at homeroom each day for a week to make a $2,000 donation to the Daily News and Americares fund.”Every morning they collected change from their fellow students at homeroom time – we wrote a letter home to parents as well, ” JHS 194 Principal Anne Marie Iannizzi said Tuesday. “It's only taken them a week. We're very proud of them.”At St. Andrew Avellino School on 35-50 158th St., the children decided to hold a “dress-down day” Friday.”We are a Catholic private school so the kids will do anything to get out of their uniforms,” Principal Debora Hanna said.Normally, the students bring in a dollar on a “dress-down day” in order to fund-raise.”We usually say we need textbooks for the fourth grade and everybody brings in a dollar and we raise $350 – this time they just knew it was serious,” said Hanna. “Most of the kids brought in a minimum of $5.”The female students at the Catholic school are normally required to wear a plaid jumper and tie, while the male students must wear dress pants, a dress shirt and a tie. Both boys and girls must wear black dress shoes everyday.The eighth-graders were not able to enjoy the casual Friday because they had graduation pictures, but that did not stop them from helping raise the $3,900 that the school contributed to the American Red Cross.”We only had a half a day, too,” Hanna said, because of a teacher conference that Friday afternoon. “It wasn't like they were going to get a full day out of the uniform.”Almost every student, she said, showed up at school in jeans and sneakers.Reach reporter Cynthia Koons by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 141.
