News

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Washington Students Support Children at Home and Abroad

Using proceeds from the sale of a class-produced novel, for the second year in a row Washington Elementary School students in Barry Nitikman’s fifth-grade class will donate a llama to a needy family in a foreign country. The students make this happen through the program Heifer International.

Because the novel, THREE KIDS, ONE DESERT, NO CLUE, generated far more profit than expected, today the students (who are now sixth graders) enthusiastically donated $850 to Transition House, which provides valuable assistance and services not just to Washington families, but to those in many other schools across the district. Mr. Nitikman added, "The novel, THREE KIDS, ONE DESERT, NO CLUE, has been placed in most school libraries in the district, and continues to be regularly checked out from the Santa Barbara, Goleta, and other local public library branches. The authors are enormously proud of this."

Gratefully and graciously accepting the check today was Kathleen Baushke, executive director of Transition House. Shoreline Publishing Group’s President James Buckley, Jr., the novel’s publisher, announced his company’s plan to match the students’ contribution.

Sixth-grade student Blythe Hastings spoke of the experience: “It means a lot to us. It was a great responsibility writing a novel and we loved doing it together as friends. It also means a lot to us as a class and individually to give the money to Transition House. We all had a part in it and we hope Transition House can use the money.”

This year’s class is already hard at work on their novel, which is certain to be another exciting adventure. It has the working title ALATRAPPED! It is a novel that involves children who are trapped on Alcatraz island during a major earthquake on the mainland. They must battle sinister forces, including supernatural ones, to escape their otherwise deadly fate.