Mrs Skittles

There are a couple inaccuracies here (were not 25k flyers passed out) but very positive article. This girl is awesome, pretty much took EVERYTHING from this party and donated it The made her pictures and stuff that she posted on ubersonic.org. I believe the final count for books donated was 258 childrens books. You got in free with 2 childrens books, otherwise it cost $7, 100% went to the kids.

Need more like this to put the positivity in the scene out!

Article

Unexpected gift aids DM school

A woman throws a rave to raise money for Longfellow Elementary School.

By AMANDA MITTLESTADT
REGISTER CORRESPONDENT
October 21, 2004



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A young woman who never attended a Des Moines school recently made a surprise donation to Longfellow Elementary School on Des Moines' east side.

Jessica Hernandez, 19, of Des Moines raised around $1,000 by holding a rave outside of Ames. By charging $7 or two children's books as admission, she was also able to give the school 260 books for its classrooms.

Hernandez attended elementary school in Ankeny and junior and senior high school at Southeast Polk.

"I'd heard about the budget cuts, and Des Moines schools seem to have more need than suburban schools," she said. "I wanted to have a rave, but I didn't just want to have a party. I wanted it to mean something."

Jan Werth, Longfellow's office manager, said Hernandez asked Superintendent (Eric) Witherspoon which school needed money.

"He told her they all did, so she did research," Werth said.

Hernandez said she spent two weeks doing Internet searches to determine which schools needed help.

"I looked at the number of students on free or reduced lunches. I also considered test scores, previous donations, and parent-teacher conference attendance," she said.

Once Hernandez had decided on a school to help, she printed 25,000 fliers for the party and distributed them around high schools and the Drake University campus. She also registered the rave at a Web site that allows users to list upcoming parties.

"The rave took me and my boyfriend four to five months to plan," Hernandez said. "I couldn't have done it without him, because he'd organized parties before."

In addition to admission, Hernandez also accepted extra donations and supplies, including crayons and markers, from those who attended.

"It was an all-ages event, but most people were from high school," she said. "Everyone was so sweet about it. They'd give me $10 and say, 'No change.' "

She also set out an "Instant Karma" can for donations and sold water for $1. In all, Hernandez raised about $500 and matched that donation with her own money.

With a box full of cash and three boxes of books, Hernandez made sure Longfellow's principal, Cecil Brewton, would be available when she went to the school.

"The school had no idea what I'd done," she said.

Brewton said he was surprised.

"I was overjoyed that a person so young had made the decision to do something good for children and schools," he said. "I was impressed with her thought process in deciding which school would receive her donation."

Hernandez's donation will be used to allow Longfellow students to go on field trips, Werth said.

"The district has cut funding for field trips, so we divided the money by grade level," she said. "We wanted to make sure each class gets to go on a field trip this year."

The books were split among the classrooms, Werth said. "We also allowed the kids to take some of them home."

Following her surprise donation, Hernandez received a letter from Longfellow.

"They said they look at me like a guardian angel," said Hernandez, who is not currently in school but plans to attend Drake and major in child psychology.

"We have, on occasion, received other random donations, but none as special as this," Brewton said.

__________________
Herb is the healing of a nation; alcohol is the destruction.

~Bob Marley

Busta

She had a rave outside an Ames store and flyered her high school?? That sounds like a pretty dumb rave. Sorry to be negative but back in Cleveland's prive raving days most parties did a can food drive of something of the sort. This didn't keep the news media from constantly bashing the scene and cops from raiding one party after another until the scene was nearly dead.

On a positive note, good for her for identifing people in need and doing something to help them

__________________
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the number of hits we take from the bong

itsgigglegirl

i'm not sure, but i think they mean the town Ames in Iowa...i could be wrong tho

didn't ames go out of business a few years back anyways?

and a big yay for positive media regarding raves

__________________
~~Noodle~~

You can't miss me, I'm the girl with the smile

Shake like an earthquake, and cut like a guillotine

Busta

That would be much better. I was picturing a rave out in the parking lot of a shopping center.

Mrs Skittles

It was Ames, Iowa... and she flier at high schools in the suburban area around the school she was looking to help. She is already done with school.

Just one more step forward with the media.

kandeegirl2

^^^ is this my girl vanessa r.??

good post my beotch
hugs
i miss you~!!!

__________________
Definition of love:
the ability to allow those that you care for to be what they choose for themselves without any insistence that they satisfy you.

Mrs Skittles

Yes it is!!!

*muAh*

Miss you too!

Mr.Me

Good story, glad to hear positive things are being done and recognized for the rave scene.

upinflames1234

w00t for da raves...

__________________
Belong to the hardcore Regime
Wake up from your sythetic dreams

chipakapockets

That's awesome!!!!!!

It's good to see good things in the news like that every so often.

PLUR,

Chip

__________________
"Computer games don't affect kids; I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in darkened rooms, munching magic pills and listening to repetitve electronic music."

Kristian Wilson, Nintendo Inc, 1989

happy1

that is plur if i ever saw it! it warms my heart to hear that!

HuMbLeBuMbLe

there's a party in Philly, PA to raise funds for this little boy who has cancer..i can't go cuz it's a 21+ party...

I love to party for good causes!

Poemi

Yep. AC SLATER is playing. It's this saturday.

__________________