DATE: Friday, May 9, 1997                   TAG: 9705090700

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B7   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY PHYLLIS SPEIDELL, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: SUFFOLK                           LENGTH:   52 lines

KIDS HOLD BAKE SALE FOR FLOOD VICTIMS

Brittany Lawson, 8, learned this week that a sweet tooth and a caring heart can work together to help a neighbor in need - even if that neighbor is thousands of miles away.

Brittany and her second grade classmates at Zion Elementary School worked with their teacher, Bridget Donohue, to operate a before-school bake sale. In eight days, they raised more than $200 to send to victims of the North Dakota floods.

``We saw on television that the president said he was going to help, so we decided that we should help too,'' Brittany said. ``We are going to send the money to people whose houses sunk.''

Although Brittany was not quite sure where North Dakota was, Josh Korahaes, a third-grader who had been in Donohue's class last year, thought he knew: ``Just go to the west and turn up.''

Donohue, a second-year teacher at Mount Zion, focuses on current events every week and discovered that many of her 16 students were bringing in news stories about the North Dakota floods.

``In talking about how we could help, the kids suggested that we do the bake sale,'' she said. Donohue sent a letter to her fellow faculty and staff at the school, her students' families and the families of her students from last year asking for their help with the ``Buy a Sweet, Give North Dakota a Treat Sale.'' Their response was their own flood of cupcakes, brownies, cakes and cookies to stock the bake sale daily.

``This has been a great learning experience,'' Donohue said. Not only did the project enhance the class' sense of community, she said, it also provided a hands-on learning activity for their lesson unit about money.

Donohue's class will donate the sweet-sale proceeds to the Red Cross, hoping that the money might go directly to an elementary school in the flood-ravaged area.

Customer of The Week award probably should go to 5-year-old Travis Godfrey, an early-childhood education student at Mount Zion, whose mother brought him in every morning to select a goodie.

``Cupcakes are my favorite,'' Travis said as he clutched a paper bag with his choice for the day. Although he may not have realized that he was helping folks with his purchase, Godfrey had his own reason for supporting the sale. ``I just love cupcakes!'' ILLUSTRATION: MICHAEL KESTNER photos/The Virginian-Pilot

Patrick Horan, above right, reaches for a treat as Ernest Jones

reacts to the number of students buying sweets at the ``Buy a Sweet,

Give a Treat to North Dakota'' bake sale at Mount Zion Elementary in

Suffolk. Below, students man the table where they raised more than

$200 for flood victims. KEYWORDS: FLOOD VICTIMS

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