Students from Columbus Middle School and Columbus High School raised $1,700 last week to bring cheer to children fighting cancer.
The premise was simple: Middle-schoolers donated $3 apiece to participate in a charity dodgeball game, wearing their favorite clothes and caps, which aren’t allowed under the school’s dress code. High-schoolers donated $1 apiece to wear the cap of their choice to school on Friday. The middle-schoolers raised $1,400, and the high-schoolers raised more than $300.
Proceeds went to the Caps for Kids program, an international charity founded in 1993 by Dr. Stephen Heinrich of New Orleans. The money is used to purchase hats and scarves for children with cancer and to have the items autographed by their favorite sports personalities. The New Orleans-based program is being used at more than 100 hospitals in the United States and Canada.
The event was organized by Sam Chism of Columbus, who first heard about it while in Germany in 2008. He said when he learned it combined two of his favorite things — caps and children — he knew he had to get involved.
“It allows us to do something bigger than ourselves,” Chism said. “It allows us to benefit children we know are sick. We’re helping out people who are less fortunate than us and carving out our own little niche in the world.”
At the moment, the Columbus Municipal School District is the only school system involved, but Chism hopes to bring the program to the Lowndes County School District as well as to schools in Tupelo and Jackson, then spread it to Tuscaloosa, Ala., and other areas.
“I felt like if I could get the surrounding communities involved, then it could spread if they saw the success in Mississippi,” he said.
Still, he was overwhelmed by the response from the Columbus middle school and high school students.
“We see this generation as a lost generation, selfish,” he said. “But to see them reach in their pockets and open their hearts, man, it opened my heart.”
For more information about the program, visit capsforkids.org.
Carmen K. Sisson is the former news editor at The Dispatch.
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