When Adaline Padlina and Melissa Ruble heard about the
devastation caused by the recent tsunami in Southeast Asia, they
decided it was time to take the community leadership skills they’d
learned in the 4-H Club and apply them to an international
cause.
Hollister – When Adaline Padlina and Melissa Ruble heard about the devastation caused by the recent tsunami in Southeast Asia, they decided it was time to take the community leadership skills they’d learned in the 4-H Club and apply them to an international cause.
“We felt really bad about the tsunami and we wanted to do anything we could to help,” said Ruble, 16, a student at Notre Dame High School in Salinas and president of the San Benito County 4-H.
So Ruble, Padlina and eight other local 4-H’ers sat down and brainstormed ways to join in the relief effort. They came up with a penny drive for local 4-H families, during which the families would save all their pennies in a jar for one month and the children would count them out and send them to UNICEF, according to Ruble. This quickly grew into a countywide effort when the club challenged all San Benito County families to do the same.
The 4-H’ers’ latest project is distributing collection buckets emblazoned with their signature clover at businesses throughout the tri-county area, according to Padlina, 15. There are already about 20 buckets floating around in dentists’ offices, supermarkets and banks, she said, collecting spare change, cash and checks for the tsunami victims.
“Our goal is $5,000, so we’ll have to wait until we’re done to empty the cans out and see how we did,” Padlina said.
Neither she nor Ruble knew how much money has been raised so far, but both said the drive was going well and had expanded to include the Fairview 4-H Club.
The collection cans have been out for about two weeks, Padlina said, and the drive will continue until Valentine’s day. Buckets can be found at the Hollister 4-H office, San Benito Bank, Windmill market, McAbee feed and other area businesses.
Ladd Lane Elementary School has also started a coin collection for tsunami relief. Students will be collecting donations for the Red Cross through Jan. 31.
To make a donation to Ladd Lane’s drive, call Asst. Principal Maxine Carlson at 831-636-4490
For more information about the 4-H drive, contact Adaline Padlina at 831-623-9343.
