When nine-year-old Sonja Bella Hans saw the damage and desperation caused by last month's first round of historic flooding, the Lemon Avenue Elementary fourth-grader knew she had to do something.
"One day we were in class, and our teacher was talking about how so many kids were having to be moved from this one school called Bancroft," she said.
More than 400 students, 60 teachers, and staff evacuated from Bancroft Elementary School in the La Mesa-Spring Valley school district after flood water from the Jan. 22 storm destroyed flooring in every classroom and office.
They were moved to nearby Spring Valley Academy, where they have been holding classes while their campus was repaired.
While all of that was happening, Sonja decided to start a community fundraiser called "Bracelets for Bancroft."
With the support of her parents and her school principal, she spent two weekends making large and small bracelets from plastic beads, and then selling them last week for donations to help flood victims and to be used toward the recovery effort.
She said the money is "for repairs or when the students come back after the repairs are done. They can have a little celebration or a party or maybe a school-wide prize with the money we donated."
She added, "Even if it only helps repair one classroom, one classroom is a lot to me and that can help a lot of children’s lives.”
The bracelets sold out and the sale raised $700.
But there could be more. Sonja and her mother, Charlotte Hans, will go before the school board next month to give a full report on their fundraiser, and to discuss the possibility of continuing the project.
Her mother said she is proud of her daughter for helping and learning an important lesson.
"That sense of community involvement that sense of giving back to your community starts at a very young age. It's that cultivation of your identity that starts with the formative years," she said.
