The Croc Hunters!

We really loved reading this story when it came across our computers the other day. This is from the Evergreen PeaceJam group in Colorado that is working with the PeaceJam Juniors curriculum. It goes to show how being in PeaceJam can influence kids to see that "one person can make a difference". Please read on and be inspired!

From http://denver.yourhub.com/Evergreen/Stories/News/General-News/Story~512799.aspx

Liz Cohen doesn't mind opening up her home to a good cause. Which is what she did Aug. 25 for the 10 to 12 elementary school-age children in Evergreen who want to get involved in community service.

Cohen, who has been active in community grass roots efforts such as the North Evergreen Activity Trail and is the president of the Bergen Leadership Council at the Bergens, said when she and a group of 15 to 20 families decided to work together to encourage such service, it was based work done by Julie Maus and Cindy Gottlob to start a local Peace Jam group.

"The kids wanted to do service projects and learn about the good things in the world," Cohen said.

She said the Evergreen Peace Jam group worked from a Peace Jam curriculum that encouraged kids ages 5 to 11 to start out by studying the personal experiences of Nobel Peace Laureates.

"Their reading about Nobel Peace Laureates sparked an interest in getting active," Cohen said.

When the children in the group wanted to apply what they learned, they started by collecting pencils at Bergen Meadow Elementary last May. The pencils were packaged and sent to children in South America under the leadership of Caren Henry.

"In addition to studying about the good that people do, they were inspired to do something good themselves," Cohen said.

Actions such as the pencil collection blossomed into their current mission: To collect used Crocs so the popular shoes can be recycled into shoes for children in Africa, South America and Southeast Asia.

Rita Lochhead's children are part of this young group that's out to help others.

She said, "We wanted to get the kids involved in community service to teach them they can make a difference."

Lochhead said her daughters, who attend Montessori School of Evergreen, were excited after they came home from the meeting at Cohen's house to discuss the promotion and develop materials for the Evergreen Croc collection.

Cohen said she looked to the charity arm of Crocs, Solesunited.com, for guidance on how to set up collection bins and let the kids take over from there.

Cohen said she didn't do much at the meeting with the children.

"The kids came up with the posters and a publicity announcement for their classrooms and a blurb for the school newsletter," she said.

Student Amelia Lochhead said, "I was on the publicity committee and my sisters were on the box design committee."

Before they went home, the children went door to door in Cohen's neighborhood and asked nearby residents for old their old Crocs.

Lochhead said when her children returned from the marketing meeting, they were excited about where they were going to put the collection boxes and implored her to give them her pair of the colorful shoes.

"I had to tell them, 'but, I still wear them!'"

Lochhead said, "We are always trying to find things the kids can do to become involved and ways to show them what's good in the world isn't just about getting to the soccer game. We want them to think about the spiritual side of giving and how you can feel good about helping people. It expands them a little bit."

Head of school at Montessori Betsy Hoke said, "One of the goals at Montessori of Evergreen is to encourage the students to look beyond themselves to help others locallly and globally. We're excited to support this drive because it came from the students' inspiration."