Raising funds, the old-fashioned way

Every three years or so, the Columbia Falls Junior High School holds a fundraiser for the school’s student council. This year, sixth-grader Afton Wendt went at it with gusto.

The school was selling items from Equal Exchange, a company that specializes in fair trade and co-op products from farmers and artisans around the world.

Wendt started out targeting the usual suspects — selling to people at her father’s office and her church. But then she loaded her younger sister Emma on the handle bars of her bicycle and hit the streets, pedaling for miles around, going door-to-door the old fashioned way.

In the end, Wendt sold $830 worth of fair trade and co-op products. Last week, she was awarded with a $200 check for her efforts. What’s the school’s top saleswoman going to do with money?

“Buy Christmas presents,” she said.

All told, 215 students sold more than $34,800 worth of merchandise from the catalog, according to student council advisor and junior high teacher Leslie DiMaio. The student council will receive about $12,000 of that money to fund various community and school projects in the next few years, she explained.

Last year, for example, the council paid $6,000 for a fence around the school’s new community garden and orchard.

Three of Wendt’s peers also sold more than $700 worth of merchandise. Mailee Windauer, Nicholas Johnson and Jarrett Wieringa all received cash awards ranging from $50 to $150.