Students at Thomas Johnson Elementary School in Baltimore had a special project that is making a difference in their community.
Rebecca McClure, a fifth grade English teacher at Thomas Johnson, assigned her students to identify and research a problem in Baltimore then partner with an organization that strives to fix it. Some students choose the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, a homelessness center at a church, and one group choose Baltimore Cease-Fire.
"My hope is that this learning will continue, that they will become the people who want to go out and help the community. That this is something that will seem normal to them to do when they are on their own, said McClure."
With the "Change War for Peace" initiative the three students put a bottle in every classroom and each class competed to collect the most change. The winning class got an "out-of-uniform" day. In the end, they wound up collecting $788.50.
On Monday representatives from Ceasefire came to the school on East Heath Street to accept the big check from the students.
