Brody Richert, a third grader at Pe Ell school holds up snail shells he picked up while on his walk along the Willapa Trail Wednesday afternoon in Pe Ell.
Students from Pe Ell school district walk along the Willapa Trail Wednesday afternoon in Pe Ell.
Dawna Robinson, the coordinator of the event, organizes students from Pe Ell school district as they walk along the Willapa Trail Wednesday afternoon in Pe Ell.
Dawna Robinson, the coordinator of the event, takes donations from the hands of students at Pe Ell school district before walking along the Willapa Trail Wednesday afternoon at Pe Ell school.
Liam Lennox, a second grader at Pe Ell school receives a gift for donating the most amount of money Wednesday afternoon in Pe Ell. He donated $171, $71 in pledges and $100 out of his own piggy-bank.
Students from Pe Ell school district walk along the Willapa Trail last June in Pe Ell.
Students from Pe Ell school district walk along the Willapa Trail Wednesday afternoon in Pe Ell.
Dawna Robinson, the coordinator of the event, holds up a sign with the dollar amount of donations raised by students at Pe Ell school district before walking along the Willapa Trail Wednesday afternoon at Pe Ell school.
Although they were young when it hit, Pe Ell high school students still remember the flood of 2007. It’s these memories that drove some of the students to help an elementary school affected by Hurricane Harvey.
“We are raising money for a school in Texas that got destroyed by the hurricane,” said Pe Ell WE Club member Faith Hoffman. “We have been emailing them about things that they need. They lost all of their supplies for school right before the first day. So we have been raising money for supplies and helping them rebuild their school.”
The Pe Ell WE Club raised $1,070 for Mitchell Elementary School in Houston, Texas. After the school was hit by Hurricane Harvey in 2017, the Pe Ell students chose it as the recipient for their global fundraising project this year.
Dawna Robinson, who advises the 13-member high school club, said this was the cause students felt most passionate about.
“So many people came out to our community to help us during that time,” Robinson said. “We wanted to pay it forward. The high school kids could relate to it and all remember the flood and being affected by it. They remember the people that helped them out.”
The WE Club, which is part of the worldwide development WE Charity, involved the elementary school students in their project. The WE Club held a walkathon Thursday and asked students to get at least $5 in pledges.
The group walked two miles on Willapa Hills Trail, along what used to be a major railway line in west Lewis County. Robinson said that during the 2007 flood, that same route was a major exit point for people in the area.
While the Pe Ell elementary school students were too young to remember the 2007 flood, the high school students still have early memories of it.
“I just remember seeing all of the water on the road and it was scary seeing things float that came from different houses,” said Alli Justice, who is 17 and a WE Club member. “Just hearing that my friends’ houses flooded and they had to move was just heartbreaking to me. Even though I was little, I still understood.”
Hoffman, is 16 now, but she still has memories of the flood.
“We had a rescue team that stayed at our house, so we would make them breakfast and stuff,” she said.
Both students grew up in the Pe Ell school district.
“It (the water) was really high, and I was really small and it was very scary — very scary,” Justice said.
After buses dropped students off a few miles from the school, the WE Club, their advisers, the elementary school teachers and the elementary school students all walked back toward the school.
“We are lucky in our community to have this trail,” said Stasha Magruder, Pe Ell’s intervention specialist and co-leader of the WE Club. “This used to be a railroad and now they have converted it into this wonderful opportunity for us. We chose it because it was close to our community and a good opportunity for the kids to get out and see this.”
The largest monetary contribution came from student Liam Lennox, who raised $171 to donate to Mitchell Elementary School. He told Robinson that $71 of it was from pledges and $100 was from his piggy bank.
Although a noted philanthropist at Pe Ell School, Liam ultimately declined to talk to the press about his contributions. He was advised by a classmate, “Watch out Liam — run, it’s the news people!”
Although they are too young to remember first hand, every elementary school student The Chronicle spoke with said their parents have discussed the flood.
Gavin Day, who is in second grade, said his parents talked about losing possessions and riding in boats during the flood. Blake Burnett, also in second grade, said his grandparents experienced the flood and that his parents talked about the mudslide.
Student Morgan Markee pointed out her parents’ old house on the trail. When asked what her favorite part of the day was, she said, “that we raised so much money.”
