It was the holidays, but students in teacher Lynn Hoffman’s fifth-grade class at Tommie Barfield Elementary School on Marco Island were feeling blue.
The Dec. 14 tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., was taking a toll on the 20 youngsters.
To cheer them up, Hoffman gave each student $10.
The students were excited to receive such a gift. Their excitement quickly turned to talk of how they would spend their money when one student suggested donating it to benefit the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook tragedy. The rest of the class jumped onboard with the idea.
The students pooled together their gift money and asked Hoffman to write out a check in the amount of $200 to Sandy Hook’s Parent-Teacher Association. They also made sympathy cards and paper snowflakes to send with the check.
On Thursday, the Collier County Sheriff’s Office recognized the class with a Do The Right Thing Award for their selfless and generous act.
It was the first time CCSO’s Do The Right Thing Program honored an entire class.
CCSO Youth Relations Bureau Specialist Joe Rakow gave each student a signed certificate with their name on it from Sheriff Kevin Rambosk. The students also received a medal and a DTRT bumper sticker for their kind deed.
ABOVE: Photo by Kristi Lester/CCSO
