Sandcreek Middle School students help custodian in need

It’s the Friday before winter break and students at Sandcreek Middle School in Ammon are excited for the end of the day to come. But it is not because of their two-week vacation from school. These kids are excited to finally hand over the proceeds from their Coin War.

“This money was going towards our custodian who was diagnosed with breast cancer a couple weeks ago and we thought that it would be great to help out,” said Annabel Woolstenhulme, an eighth-grader .

The student council puts on a fundraiser each year around Christmas. When they were coming up with ideas, school principal Yvonne Thurber told her staff that one of their custodians had been diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer.

“I took that to student council,” said Candice Traughber, an English teacher and student council adviser. “Every single one of them were immediately like, ‘Yes that’s what we need to raise money for. That’s who we need to raise money for.'”

That is when the Coin War kicked off.

The school was divided into six teams. Each day students would bring in their pocket change and add it to their bucket.

“It was really cool because everybody was just working together and didn’t care who did what,” said Kaysia Fullmer, an eighth-grader. “They all just pitched in and helped.”

Eventually the fundraiser had students and staff bringing in anything they could.

“They were giving what little bit of money they had,” Traughber said. “Sometimes students were giving over their lunch money to try to help our custodian. Because they just wanted to give.”

In just three weeks, they were able to collect $6,000.

“You know kids are amazing, I think lots of times we discount what our kids are capable of,” Thurber said. “To think that 12-, 13-, 14-year-olds really put this together and they pulled it off. They did it with joy and just excitement. I love my job.”

The custodian is currently undergoing chemotherapy and is away from work. She cannot see many visitors. But the school hopes she knows one thing.

“How much she is appreciated, how much she is loved, how much support she has from the people she works with and the students and the community themselves and how much we are all rooting for her,” said Traughber.

The custodian, her family and the school asked for her name not to be released.